Questions we hear most.

Quantum law is the emerging body of legal and regulatory practice addressing how quantum technologies are built, funded, protected, secured and governed. It spans intellectual property, cybersecurity and cryptography compliance, data protection, export control and national security review, and commercial contracting — organised around the technology rather than a single traditional legal discipline.

It depends on how the claim is drafted. An abstract quantum algorithm claimed in isolation risks being treated as unpatentable subject matter in many jurisdictions, similar to the scrutiny software patents have long faced. Claims tied to a specific technical implementation — a particular gate sequence, error-mitigation technique, or integration with defined hardware — are generally more defensible. Quantum hardware innovations typically face a more straightforward patentability path than algorithmic claims.

Post-quantum cryptography (PQC) refers to classical cryptographic algorithms designed to resist attack from both classical and quantum computers. It is software-based and deployed as a replacement for today's RSA and elliptic-curve algorithms, distinct from quantum key distribution, which is a hardware-based, physics-driven approach to secure communication.

A sufficiently advanced quantum computer could, in principle, break the mathematical foundations of much of today's public-key encryption. No such machine exists commercially yet, but data intercepted and stored today can be decrypted later once capable hardware exists — a risk known as "harvest now, decrypt later." This makes migration planning a present concern, not a future one, particularly for data with long confidentiality requirements.

Start with a cryptographic inventory to understand where your organisation relies on algorithms vulnerable to quantum attack, prioritise migration for systems protecting long-lived sensitive data, engage vendors on their post-quantum readiness, and build governance — board reporting, documented risk decisions, updated contracts — around the transition. Separately, review IP strategy, research collaboration agreements and export control exposure if your organisation is developing quantum technology directly.

Yes, primarily through the "harvest now, decrypt later" pathway: personal data encrypted today can be captured and stored now for decryption once quantum decryption capability matures. This is particularly relevant for data with long sensitivity horizons, such as health, genomic and government data, and increasingly informs what regulators consider "reasonable" security safeguards under data protection frameworks such as India's DPDP Act.

Quantum AI — the combination of quantum computing and artificial intelligence — compounds existing AI governance questions rather than replacing them: who owns a discovery made by an AI system running on quantum hardware, what explainability standard applies to a doubly opaque decision-making process, and how liability should be allocated when an error could originate in the algorithm, the training data, or the underlying quantum hardware. Organisations should extend existing AI governance frameworks to explicitly cover these hybrid systems.