Guest Post: Patentability of Quantum Computing Inventions

Guest Post by Sinan Utku, Bilkent University Law School (Ankara); J.D. (Columbia University Law School) and Ph.D. (Yale University, physics) The field of quantum computing is poised to advance dramatically in the near future. If expected advances actually occur, many problems that classical computing technologies cannot feasibly solve may become tractable. Given that the field is on the verge of fast and important technological advancements in this field, it makes sense to consider the patenting strategies that will be needed to protect them. This article discusses patent eligibility of quantum computing inventions under U.S. law in the context of a concrete example. As such, the article is intended for workers in the field and assumes elementary quantum computing knowledge. Patent eligibility is one of the basic substantive requirements to obtain a patent. Not all creative output can be patented. For example, a painting, or a design, is obviously not patentable and can be only protected using other types of intellectual property. More arguable issues of patent eligibility arise in connection with computer-implemented inventions. For example, most practitioners in most patent systems would probably agree that a methodology or computer program for controlling an apparatus in an industrially useful process should…