Copper Converting Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
Copper converting and fire refining patents: mapping the leaders and the open claim space
37.4% of the field sits with five assignees. Top 5 combined account for 82 of 219 records in scope, while a long tail of 77 ranked companies files one or two records each. Filing peaked at 14 records in 2023. The most recent years are undercounted because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so 2025 and 2026 figures will continue to rise as later filings publish.
- 1KENNECOTT UTAH COPPER LLC21
- 2UNIVERSITY OF CHILE18
- 3KENNECOTT COPPER CORP16
- 4MITSUBISHI MATERIALS CORP14
- 5METSO METALS OY13
See the full copper converting and fire refining analysis in Eureka
- The complete ranking, not just the top five
- Every IPC branch with its share of the corpus
- The most-cited records, and where claim space is still thin
Common questions on copper converting patents
Who holds the most patents in copper converting and fire refining?
The dataset’s leading assignee holds 21 of the 219 records in scope, with fifth place at 13. The top 5 assignees together account for 82 records, or 37.4% of the field, while the top 10 extend to 66.2%. Beyond that, the ranking runs to 77 companies total, most filing only one or two records, so the field is concentrated at the top but not closed to new entrants.
What technology areas do copper converting patents cover?
Almost all records, 96.3% of the 219 in scope, classify under IPC subclass C22B, metal extraction and refining, confirming this is a tightly bounded process area. Smaller clusters appear in furnace hardware (F27B, F27D), steelmaking-adjacent processes (C21C), and analytical instrumentation (G01J for radiation measurement, G01N for material testing), each covering under 10% of records and marking distinct secondary claim spaces around monitoring and furnace design.
Has patent filing in copper converting been growing?
Filing activity peaked at 14 records in 2023, but there are not enough complete years after accounting for publication lag to state a reliable growth rate. Publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, so the most recent one to two years in any trend chart will understate true filing activity. Recent-year momentum figures for the most active assignees show no new filings in the latest year, but this should be read as a data-lag artefact rather than a confirmed slowdown.
Disclaimer. This analysis is based on Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent records and is provided for general information and reference only. Patent data carries inherent limitations — recent filings are under-counted because of publication lag, counts may be on a record or family basis, classification and applicant-name data may contain errors or duplicates, and the underlying search query defines the scope shown — so the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing here is an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Verify independently and review with qualified patent and legal professionals before acting on it.
Method: Filing trend and technology composition. Derived from a Patsnap search on Copper Converting and Fire Refining covering 2015–2026, data cut-off 2026-07-31. Counts reflect published records only and shift as new filings publish. Every share divides by all records in scope. Data: Patsnap Eureka. See the full landscape report.