A comprehensive joint study by the European Patent Office (EPO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) provides a timely snapshot of the quantum ecosystem at this transition point. Drawing on patent data, firm formation, investment flows, skills demand, trade and public policy, the report offers a detailed view of how quantum innovation is developing globally, and what that means for companies seeking to protect, fund and commercialise their technology.

US leading the pack, but Europe catching up

The global quantum landscape remains led by the USA. It accounts for the largest share of quantum patenting, the highest number of firms entering the field, and a disproportionately large share of total investment. Around 60% of all recorded funding to quantum companies has gone to US-based firms, driven primarily by significantly larger average deal sizes rather than by a greater number of investment rounds.

From an IP perspective, this dominance has two important consequences. First, US-based companies are more likely to build large, well-funded patent portfolios early, often with broad international coverage. Second, later-stage investment allows those portfolios to be reinforced over time through divisional and continuation filings, follow-on applications and strategic acquisitions.

That dominance, however, is shrinking. The US share of global quantum international patent families has declined in recent years as activity in Europe and parts of Asia has accelerated. Europe’s contribution to quantum patenting has steadily grown, led by Germany, the United Kingdom and France, and Europe now accounts for around 25% of all quantum international patent families, compared with approximately 30% for the US. While European firms generally attract less capital per deal than their US counterparts, Europe now hosts a dense cluster of quantum startups and shows strong specialisation in quantum technologies relative to its overall patenting activity.

This points to a familiar structural issue. Europe has built deep technical capability and a strong startup base, but European firms typically attract less scale-up capital. As the ecosystem matures, Europe’s challenge is therefore less about generating patentable innovation and more about supporting the scale-up of IP-rich companies into globally competitive businesses.

Quantum is growing rapidly

Across all metrics, quantum is one of the fastest-growing areas of technological innovation. International patent families relating to quantum technologies increased roughly sevenfold between 2005 and 2024, with most of that growth occurring in the past decade. Since around 2014, quantum patenting has expanded at an average rate of approximately 20% per year, far outpacing growth across patenting as a whole.

Firm creation broadly mirrors this trend. New entrants into the quantum ecosystem increased steadily up to around 2021, particularly in quantum computing. More recent data suggest that growth in new firms and investment may be levelling off. Importantly, this does not indicate a slowdown in innovation. Rather, it reflects a transition to a more selective funding environment in which fewer companies progress to late-stage, capital-intensive growth.

In this sense, innovation is outpacing commercial scale-up. The ecosystem has proven highly effective at generating research outputs, patent filings and early-stage companies. What is less developed is the pipeline of late-stage capital and industrial capacity required to turn those assets into deployed systems and revenue-generating products.

For IP strategy, this shift is critical. As scale-up funding becomes scarcer, investors are likely to place greater weight on patent quality, scope and enforceability. Portfolios that clearly map onto scalable architectures, defensible system-level claims and credible freedom-to-operate positions are likely to be favoured over large but unfocused collections of early-stage filings.

To help support connections between investors, researchers, startups and universities in the quantum ecosystem, the EPO has recently added the quantum firms profiled in this report to its Deep Tech Finder tool.

Computing now dominates over communications and sensing

Within the quantum domain, computing has emerged as the dominant driver of growth. For much of the past decade, quantum communication generated the largest number of patent families, reflecting early interest in quantum key distribution and secure communications. That changed in 2022, when quantum computing overtook communication and began driving the sharpest increases in patenting and firm creation.

Over the past ten years, patenting activity in quantum computing has expanded nearly twenty-fold, compared with roughly a three-fold increase in communication and more modest growth in sensing and metrology. This divergence reflects both investor expectations and perceived commercial potential. Quantum computing is increasingly viewed as a platform technology around which software, algorithms and industry-specific applications will develop.

From an IP perspective, this concentration raises the stakes significantly. Competition is intensifying around core hardware architectures, control systems, error-mitigation techniques and enabling technologies. At the same time, the absence of a clearly dominant computing paradigm means that claim strategy matters more than ever. Portfolios that are overly tied to a single hardware approach risk obsolescence, while those that capture architectural abstractions, system interactions and control techniques are more likely to retain long-term value.

Strong links to research

One of the defining characteristics of the quantum ecosystem is its continued proximity to academic research. While the share of international patent filings by private companies has steadily increased (rising from under 50% in 2005 to over 80% today as the sector becomes more commercially oriented) public research organisations still account for close to 20% of all quantum international patent families.

Quantum patents also cite non-patent literature, primarily academic journal articles, at significantly higher rates than patents in most other technology fields. This indicates that much quantum innovation continues to emerge directly from frontier research rather than incremental product development.

The same pattern is evident in company formation. Founders of core quantum firms are far more likely than founders in other sectors to hold PhDs, and the quantum workforce remains heavily concentrated in research, engineering and computer science roles. Commercial, sales and customer-facing functions represent a relatively small share of quantum-related job postings.

This research intensity shapes the IP landscape. Inventions often arise from collaborative research environments involving universities, startups and public research organisations, increasing the importance of clear ownership arrangements, background IP definitions and downstream licensing rights. As technologies mature, the ability to translate academically grounded inventions into commercially robust patent claims will become increasingly important.

Wide international reach
Quantum innovation is also unusually international, not only in collaboration but in patent protection strategy. Quantum patent families are far more likely than average to be filed across multiple jurisdictions, reflecting both expectations of global markets and intense international competition.

This high level of internationalisation carries clear cost implications. Securing protection across the US, Europe and Asia requires early, coordinated filing strategies and a willingness to absorb substantial prosecution and translation costs at a relatively early stage of company development. However, for quantum technologies, the potential benefits often justify this investment. International patent coverage can be critical for attracting later-stage investment, supporting cross-border partnerships and licensing, and preserving long-term freedom to operate in a field where supply chains, customers and acquirers are inherently global.

Conclusion

As the International Year of Quantum fades into history, the quantum ecosystem enters a more demanding phase. The EPO and OECD joint report provides a valuable snapshot of the current landscape, showing that innovation remains strong and patenting continues to grow faster than in any other technology area. At the same time, the constraints ahead are becoming clearer: scale-up funding gaps, increasing international complexity, supply-chain concentration and the challenge of turning research-driven advances into deployable systems.

In this environment, intellectual property will be central. The post-2025 phase of quantum development will reward IP strategies that are not only scientifically credible, but commercially aligned, internationally coherent and resilient to shifts in technology and market structure. If the International Year of Quantum marked the moment when quantum technologies captured global attention, its lasting legacy may be that it also marks the point at which IP strategy becomes as critical as scientific breakthrough in shaping quantum’s future.