The UK’s intellectual property agency must reform how it treats patents for emerging technologies like quantum and AI to prevent unfair rejections, according to an IP law firm. 

Dr Edd Cavanna, a partner at Mathys & Squire, said the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) risked preventing patents for new nascent technologies due to its “outdated” rules for approving software applications. 

The IPO requires software-based IP to have a demonstrable contribution to secure a patent, which Cavanna said excludes many innovations in fields like quantum that are “radically different” to “conventional software”. 

Cavanna argued that without changing the assessment framework, the UK was at risk of driving “cutting edge quantum computing designers elsewhere”. 

“Changing the assessment framework may be a challenge but it’s an important step if the UK is going to improve its attractiveness as a location for the quantum computing sector.”  …