This landscape identifies 29 published records in scope, covering filings from 2015 through the mid-2026 data cut-off. The search focuses specifically on magnet scrap recovery and neodymium recovery combined with process steps such as hydrogen processing, demagnetization, disassembly automation, coating removal, alloy reuse and impurity tolerance, so the true count of all rare-earth recycling activity is broader than this niche figure. Because publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, the 2025 and 2026 figures are still incomplete and will rise as more filings publish.

The ranking covers 12 companies and research institutions in total, with the leading assignee holding 12 filings against a long tail where fifth place holds only 2 and tenth place holds just 1. Several university and research groups, including Institut Jozef Stefan, the University of Birmingham, the University of Houston System and MIT, appear in the ranking, indicating that academic institutions have staked early positions alongside industrial filers. Co-filing between assignees is rare in this dataset, with only two identified co-assignee pairs.

Metal extraction and refining chemistry, classified under IPC C22B, appears in 75.9% of the 29 records in scope, making it the single most claimed technical area. Magnet-specific classifications under H01F appear in 58.6% of records, while electrolytic production and cleaning routes (C25C, C25F) and powder metallurgy (B22F) each sit under a quarter of records. This distribution shows that chemical recovery of rare-earth content from magnet material is far more heavily claimed than the mechanical disassembly, sorting or coating-removal steps that typically precede it.