Who files the most quantum patents? The top 20 filers, 2015 to 2025
IBM has the most quantum technology patent publications, 3,657 between 2015 and 2025, ahead of Google with 2,418 and Origin Quantum Computing with 2,099. This quantum patents data covers 57,224 publications in all, and the 20 largest filers hold 30.8 percent of them.
Queried October 14, 2026.
Top 20 quantum patent filers, 2015 to 2025
Counts are unique publications after merging name variants of the same company. Fifteen ranks are clear. Ranks 16 to 21 are one tied band of six, listed alphabetically: Fujitsu has 416 and NEC has 366, a spread of 50, and the gap between rank 20 and rank 21 is 1 publication. Their order is not firm.
| Rank | Assignee | Type | Home country, assigned by us | Publications | Share of window |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | International Business Machines (IBM) | Company | United States | 3,657 | 6.39% |
| 2 | Company | United States | 2,418 | 4.23% | |
| 3 | Origin Quantum Computing (Benyuan) | Company | China | 2,099 | 3.67% |
| 4 | Microsoft | Company | United States | 1,115 | 1.95% |
| 5 | Baidu | Company | China | 886 | 1.55% |
| 6 | Toshiba | Company | Japan | 752 | 1.31% |
| 7 | D-Wave Systems | Company | Canada and United States | 605 | 1.06% |
| 8 | QuantumCTek | Company | China | 595 | 1.04% |
| 9 | University of Science and Technology of China | University | China | 586 | 1.02% |
| 10 | Intel | Company | United States | 513 | 0.90% |
| 11 | Guokaike Quantum Technology | Company | China | 509 | 0.89% |
| 12 | Tencent | Company | China | 499 | 0.87% |
| 13 | Northrop Grumman | Company | United States | 497 | 0.87% |
| 14 | IonQ | Company | United States | 467 | 0.82% |
| 15 | National Quantum Communication Guangdong | Company | China | 443 | 0.77% |
| 16 to 21 tied | Fujitsu | Company | Japan | 416 | 0.73% |
| 16 to 21 tied | Huawei | Company | China | 387 | 0.68% |
| 16 to 21 tied | NEC | Company | Japan | 366 | 0.64% |
| 16 to 21 tied | Quantinuum | Company | United Kingdom and United States | 414 | 0.72% |
| 16 to 21 tied | Ruban Quantum Technology | Company | China | 415 | 0.73% |
| 16 to 21 tied | Tsinghua University | University | China | 367 | 0.64% |
Home country is our analysts’ assignment and not a PatBase field. Source: Minesoft PatBase, queried by Resonance on October 14, 2026.
Origin Quantum Computing ranks third because of one prolific filer: 1,747 of its 2,099 publications are under the Benyuan name, the pinyin of its Chinese company name. Unnamed individuals are left out of the ranking. They hold 1,210 publications, which would rank fourth.
How names were merged
- International Business Machines (IBM): IBM Corp plus its German, UK and China subsidiaries that carry the IBM name. Unique publications 3,657, against 4,039 if the names were simply added.
- Origin Quantum Computing (Benyuan): Benyuan is the pinyin of the company’s Chinese name; Origin Quantum is its English trade name (Hefei). Unique publications 2,099, against 2,115 if the names were simply added.
- Toshiba: Toshiba Corp plus Toshiba Europe and Toshiba Digital Solutions. Unique publications 752, against 790 if the names were simply added.
- Guokaike Quantum Technology: two registered entities (Beijing and Anhui) with the same trade name, merged on the name; they are co-assignees on some publications. Unique publications 509, against 599 if the names were simply added.
- Tencent: Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) plus Shenzhen Tencent Computer Systems. Unique publications 499, against 499 if the names were simply added.
- Ruban Quantum Technology: Ruban Quantum Technology and Nanjing Ruban Quantum Technology, merged on the trade name; they are co-assignees on some publications. Unique publications 415, against 643 if the names were simply added.
- Quantinuum: Quantinuum LLC plus Quantinuum Ltd; Cambridge Quantum Computing did not appear in the top 451 names. Unique publications 414, against 417 if the names were simply added.
- Huawei: Huawei Technologies Co plus its Dusseldorf and Canada entities. Unique publications 387, against 387 if the names were simply added.
- NEC: NEC Corp plus NEC Solution Innovators. Unique publications 366, against 372 if the names were simply added.
Parent and subsidiary under different names are not merged (Red Hat with IBM, X Development with Google, Bull with Atos), and numbered entities are left alone. Aliases were searched among the 451 largest names in the window, so smaller aliases are not captured.
Quantum patent publications by year
Publications rose every year in the window, from 826 in 2015 to 13,376 in 2025. By technology area, quantum computing terms account for 37,746 publications, quantum communication and QKD for 17,670, and quantum sensing for 5,520. The areas overlap, so those numbers do not add to the total.
Where quantum patents are published
The first chart counts documents by the office that published them. CNIPA, China’s office, published 24,463. WIPO and the European Patent Office are not countries, and an office is not the applicant’s home country.
Publications by publication authority, top 10 of 61. The percent in each label is the share of 57,224.
Counting extended families by the office where they were first filed is the better basis for comparing countries.
Extended patent families by first filing office, top 6 of 22, out of 25,640 families. A family can have several priority offices, so the rows add to more than the total.
How we counted
The unit is a publication
Each published patent document counts once. One invention filed in several offices counts several times, so these are publication counts and not patent families. 57,224 publications correspond to 25,640 extended families in the same years.
The query in plain words
A document is counted if its title, abstract or claims mention a quantum computing term (such as quantum computer, qubit, quantum annealing or quantum algorithm), a quantum communication term (such as quantum key distribution, QKD, quantum network or quantum entanglement) or a quantum sensing term (such as quantum sensor, quantum magnetometer, quantum clock or nitrogen-vacancy), and does not mention a post-quantum cryptography term.
See the full query
atac=((“quantum comput*” or “quantum processor*” or qubit* or “quantum annealing” or “quantum gate*” or “quantum circuit*” or “quantum error correction” or “quantum algorithm*” or “quantum key distribution” or QKD or “quantum communication*” or “quantum cryptograph*” or “quantum network*” or “quantum repeater*” or “quantum random number*” or “quantum teleportation” or “quantum entangle*” or “quantum sens*” or “quantum magnetomet*” or “quantum gravimet*” or “quantum metrology” or “quantum imaging” or “quantum radar” or “quantum lidar” or “quantum clock*” or “atom interferomet*” or “nitrogen vacancy” or “nitrogen-vacancy” or “atomic magnetomet*”) not (“post quantum” or “post-quantum” or “quantum resistant” or “quantum-resistant” or “quantum safe” or “quantum-safe”))
Window: publication years 2015 to 2025.
What the count leaves out and what it picks up
- Window: publication years 2015 to 2025. 2026 is a partial year and is not in any table.
- Post-quantum cryptography is excluded because it is classical cryptography. Leaving it out removes 3,468 publications over all years (77,962 with it, 74,494 without), and it also drops a few genuine QKD documents that mention post-quantum terms.
- Broad terms such as qubit, quantum algorithm and quantum entanglement pull in quantum-inspired and classical-simulation filings. The count means a document mentions quantum technology terms. It is not a count of quantum hardware patents.
- Assignee names are PatBase’s normalized names. Counts move as PatBase adds late-published documents, and the latest years change most.
Questions about quantum patent filings
Who files the most quantum patents?
IBM has the most quantum technology patent publications from 2015 to 2025, with 3,657. Google follows with 2,418 and Origin Quantum Computing with 2,099. Origin Quantum’s total is mostly one entity: 1,747 of its 2,099 publications are under the Benyuan name.
How many quantum patents are filed each year?
Quantum technology patent publications rose every year in the window, from 826 in 2015 to 13,376 in 2025. These are publication counts, not patent families, so one invention filed in several offices is counted more than once.
Which country files the most quantum patents?
On either basis in this guide, China’s patent office comes first. CNIPA published 24,463 of the 57,224 documents (42.8 percent), and 15,930 of the 25,640 patent families were first filed there. An office is not an applicant’s home country, so read these as where filings are made.
Are these granted patents?
They are published patent documents, and each counts once. This guide does not separate applications from grants, so do not read a count as the number of patents granted or the number of inventions.
Why count publications and not patent families?
The count comes straight from the documents in PatBase, which keeps it simple to repeat. A family groups the filings for one invention across offices, and there are 25,640 extended families against 57,224 publications in the same years. Families suit a country comparison better, which is why the first filing office table is shown.
Sources
- Source: Minesoft PatBase, queried by Resonance on October 14, 2026. Publications and extended families, publication years 2015 to 2025, assignee names as normalized by PatBase.
- The Quantum Insider Data page.
Related: quantum company profiles, top quantum computing investors in 2026, and quantum technology due diligence, where patents and IP are one of the checks.
See the filers on the platform
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