Who Owns a Quantum Algorithm?

About this episode

This Sunday's think piece asks a question the IBM-HRL headlines skipped: can you actually patent a quantum algorithm? We trace the acquisition's eleven-hundred-patent haul back to the unsettled Alice-era doctrine that governs whether any quantum invention is patentable at all, and walk the sides — reformers, patent attorneys, software-patent skeptics, corporate consolidators, and China-watchers. Linked sources: Guest Post: Patentability of Quantum Computing Inventions — The Quantum Insider IBM to Acquire HRL Laboratories to Power the Future of Quantum — IBM Newsroom IBM Acquires HRL Laboratories, Adds Silicon-Spin Qubits — NAND Research Early USPTO decision suggests favorable treatment for quantum computing — Norton Rose Fulbright Patent Eligibility Restoration Act, S.1546 — Congress.gov Quickly Quantum is an AI-voiced podcast, built and run by a real person. Nothing in this episode is financial advice.