CM-PATRACritical Minerals Patent and Technology Research Analytics
CM-PATRA / white space
Global patent activity against Indian filings
1,20,010 patent-family tags (a family can sit in several mineral and stage cells) published since 2015, across 144 mineral-and-stage cells. In 47 of the 110 cells with 50 or more families, no family has an Indian applicant on record. Each cell shows worldwide families, then families with an Indian applicant.
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- This is a landscape count by classification code. It is not a freedom-to-operate opinion: that needs claim-by-claim legal review of specific patents in force in India.
- Patent families published 2015 onward carrying a seed CPC code (C22B, C25C, C01, B03, H01M10/54), counted per India-list mineral x stage by CPC prefix; applicant country from harmonised assignee data; a family can count in several countries. 46% of families carry no applicant country, so country columns are floors.
- "India absent" cells mean no Indian applicant is recorded. They can be real gaps, or a sign that the harmonised applicant data is thin for India. The reviewed CM-PATRA dataset (Indian filings, with abstracts) is the better view of Indian activity.
- Source: Google Patents Public Data (BigQuery), CC BY 4.0, extracted 2026-10-14. The query is kept in the repository (scripts/patra/bigquery-global-matrix.sql).
| Mineral | Ore preparation | Beneficiation | Hydrometallurgy | Pyrometallurgy | Refining | Electrochemical recovery | Recycling | Compounds and materials |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lithium | 1,389 · 11 | 114 · 3 | 2,770 · 10 | 210 · 1 | 104 · 0 | 232 · 3 | 3,527 · 21 | 5,905 · 16 |
| Rare earths | 714 · 4 | 88 · 0 | 2,283 · 5 | 155 · 1 | 153 · 0 | 109 · 0 | 1,288 · 6 | 3,976 · 16 |
| Cobalt | 79 · 2 | 6 · 0 | 165 · 1 | 11 · 0 | 2 · 0 | 29 · 0 | 351 · 3 | 4,930 · 13 |
| Nickel | 1,506 · 9 | 176 · 1 | 2,495 · 12 | 514 · 2 | 169 · 0 | 405 · 3 | 3,624 · 17 | 14,202 · 24 |
| Graphite | 53 · 2 | 67 · 2 | 43 · 0 | 5 · 0 | 2 · 0 | 37 · 0 | 431 · 3 | 8,039 · 32 |
| Copper | 1,116 · 3 | 253 · 0 | 1,510 · 5 | 376 · 1 | 361 · 1 | 691 · 1 | 2,982 · 7 | 756 · 3 |
| Tin | 188 · 0 | 30 · 0 | 125 · 1 | 122 · 0 | 125 · 0 | 132 · 0 | 650 · 2 | 95 · 1 |
| Titanium | 477 · 4 | 87 · 0 | 267 · 0 | 446 · 1 | 309 · 0 | 92 · 3 | 556 · 5 | 339 · 6 |
| Zirconium / Hafnium | 48 · 0 | 14 · 0 | 112 · 0 | 64 · 0 | 56 · 0 | 12 · 0 | 97 · 0 | 2,518 · 5 |
| Vanadium | 770 · 4 | 47 · 0 | 743 · 3 | 244 · 0 | 53 · 0 | 32 · 0 | 1,071 · 3 | 2,537 · 6 |
| Niobium / Tantalum | 112 · 0 | 32 · 0 | 133 · 0 | 115 · 0 | 67 · 0 | 11 · 0 | 144 · 0 | 1,684 · 5 |
| Tungsten | 232 · 2 | 28 · 0 | 357 · 1 | 59 · 0 | 15 · 0 | 23 · 0 | 429 · 1 | 2,497 · 6 |
| Molybdenum | 281 · 2 | 37 · 0 | 402 · 1 | 70 · 0 | 20 · 0 | 20 · 0 | 386 · 1 | 2,949 · 14 |
| Gallium / Germanium / Indium | 259 · 0 | 19 · 0 | 472 · 0 | 92 · 0 | 163 · 0 | 209 · 0 | 876 · 0 | 1,830 · 0 |
| Antimony / Bismuth | 215 · 0 | 26 · 0 | 189 · 0 | 105 · 0 | 114 · 0 | 133 · 0 | 794 · 1 | 249 · 1 |
| Silicon | 163 · 0 | 248 · 0 | 171 · 0 | 46 · 0 | 43 · 0 | 56 · 0 | 269 · 1 | 20,605 · 48 |
| Potash / Strontium / Phosphate | 163 · 0 | 18 · 0 | 349 · 0 | 38 · 0 | 51 · 0 | 26 · 0 | 309 · 0 | 206 · 2 |
| Beryllium / Rhenium / Cadmium | 48 · 1 | 5 · 0 | 83 · 2 | 17 · 0 | 28 · 0 | 48 · 0 | 242 · 2 | 69 · 0 |
Shade shows worldwide families on a log scale. An orange outline marks cells with 50+ families and no Indian applicant. Hover a cell for China, USA, Japan, Korea and Europe.
Largest cells with no Indian applicant on record
- Gallium / Germanium / Indium, Compounds and materials · 1,830 families · most active: Japan (220)
- Gallium / Germanium / Indium, Recycling / secondary sources · 876 families · most active: China (33)
- Gallium / Germanium / Indium, Hydrometallurgy (leaching, solvent extraction) · 472 families · most active: Korea (24)
- Potash / Strontium / Phosphate, Hydrometallurgy (leaching, solvent extraction) · 349 families · most active: USA (30)
- Potash / Strontium / Phosphate, Recycling / secondary sources · 309 families · most active: China (22)
- Titanium, Refining · 309 families · most active: Korea (18)
- Titanium, Hydrometallurgy (leaching, solvent extraction) · 267 families · most active: USA (19)
- Gallium / Germanium / Indium, Ore preparation / agglomeration · 259 families · most active: China (12)
- Copper, Beneficiation / separation · 253 families · most active: USA (26)
- Silicon, Beneficiation / separation · 248 families · most active: Korea (12)