KPI Eco 5: Patent creation and IP retention
KPI observatory / Ecosystem
European quantum patents granted compared with the worldwide distribution of granted quantum patents.
Official values: survey results of the Quantum Flagship Strategic Advisory Board, as published. Trajectory and live measure: calculations of this portal, not the assessment of the SAB.
Official values
| Year | Value (definition page 7) | Scorecard (page 4) |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | n/a | n/a |
| 2022 | n/a | n/a |
| 2023 | Top 2 globally | Top 2 globally |
| 2024 | Top 2 globally | Top 2 globally |
| Progression per year | - | |
| 2030 target | Top 2 globally | Top 2 globally |
Definition: Official KPI values and 2030 targets
Remarks and method
- A relative rank in international patent families by country of origin, not a count.
Method as stated: QuIC study of the global patent landscape in quantum technologies (January 2025), section 2: the EU holds 17% of international patent families by country of origin, the USA 49% (booklet reference Ecosystem 5).
Trajectory (calculated by the portal)
Global rank
Not assessed
Not assessed: The indicator is a rank or a description, not a quantity.
The booklet rates each indicator on its own four-level scale (ahead of schedule, on schedule, needs progress, behind schedule); that assessment is not reproduced here.
Definition: Trajectory towards the 2030 target
Live measure of the portal
A proxy calculated by the portal from its own data; it is not the official value and measures something related, not the same thing.
Published quantum patent documents per year (EPO landscape)
3,577 documents (2025) Published documents in 2025, Quantum computing (CPC G06N 10/00 and its subgroups)
| Year | Value |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 63 |
| 2016 | 92 |
| 2017 | 174 |
| 2018 | 253 |
| 2019 | 452 |
| 2020 | 853 |
| 2021 | 1,293 |
| 2022 | 2,133 |
| 2023 | 2,593 |
| 2024 | 3,080 |
| 2025 (in progress) | 3,577 |
Trend of the measure from 2021 to 2024: rising, +595.7 a year on average.
| Quantum computing (CPC G06N 10/00 and its subgroups) | 3,577 documents published in 2025 (11 years collected) |
|---|---|
| Quantum communication (CPC H04L 9/0852 and its subgroups, and H04B 10/70) | 1,808 documents published in 2025 (11 years collected) |
Data as of 2026-11-02. Assembled on 2026-11-02.
How it is calculated
The patent landscape of technology intelligence: published documents per publication year found by EPO Open Patent Services searches in CPC G06N 10 (quantum computing) and in H04L 9/0852 with H04B 10/70 (quantum communication), shown as two series.
Coverage: Worldwide publications in those CPC groups, collected a few years per scheduled run while an OPS key is installed.
Limitations:
- Documents, not patent families, and worldwide: the share of European applicants is not available because applicant countries are not collected yet, so no rank can be derived.
- The two series can overlap and are not added together.
- The last two years are incomplete.
Where the data comes from:
Definition: Eco 5 live measure: published quantum patent documents per year
Sources
Attribution: Quantum Flagship Strategic Advisory Board, KPI booklet March 2025. The 2024 values were measured in early 2025 through surveys of SAB, QCB, QuIC and QUCATS members and verified and validated by the SAB (booklet page 2).
No reuse licence in the PDF or on qt.eu; the values are quoted as facts with attribution and the booklet is linked, not copied.