Rio Tinto has a total of 5121 patents globally, out of which 2401 have been granted. Of these 5121 patents, more than 35% patents are active. Australia is where Rio Tinto has filed the maximum number of patents, followed by USA and Canada, it has generated an annual revenue of $44.6 billion in the year 2021. Parallelly, Australia seems to be the main focused R&D centre and is also the origin country of Rio Tinto.
Rio Tinto was founded in the year 1873 by Hugh Matheson. Rio Tinto is a multinational Anglo-Australian firm that is the world’s second-largest metals and mining company (behind BHP). As of April 2022, Rio Tinto has a market cap of $132.66 Billion.
Do read about some of the most popular patents of Rio Tinto which have been covered by us in this article and also you can find Rio Tinto patents information, the worldwide patent filing activity and its patent filing trend over the years, and many other stats over Rio Tinto patent portfolio.
How many patents does the founder and the CEO of Rio Tinto have?
The founder, Hugh Matheson, has 0 patents. The CEO, Jakob Stausholm, has 0 patents.
How many patents does Rio Tinto have?
Rio Tinto has a total of 5121 patents globally. These patents belong to 1284 unique patent families. Out of 5121 patents, 1799 patents are active.
How Many Patents did Rio Tinto File Every Year?
Are you wondering why there is a drop in patent filing for the last two years? It is because a patent application can take up to 18 months to get published. Certainly, it doesn’t suggest a decrease in the patent filing.
| Year of Patents Filing or Grant | Rio Tinto Applications Filed | Rio Tinto Patents Granted |
| 2011 | 289 | 152 |
| 2012 | 263 | 131 |
| 2013 | 220 | 109 |
| 2014 | 351 | 150 |
| 2015 | 243 | 27 |
| 2016 | 149 | 32 |
| 2017 | 86 | 83 |
| 2018 | 89 | 115 |
| 2019 | 111 | 121 |
| 2020 | 88 | 122 |
| 2021 | 29 | 100 |
| 2022 | 4 | 28 |
How many Rio Tinto patents are Alive/Dead?
Worldwide Patents
How Many Patents did Rio Tinto File in Different Countries?
Countries in which Rio Tinto Filed Patents
| Country | Patents |
| Australia | 788 |
| United States Of America | 388 |
| Canada | 322 |
| Europe | 344 |
| India | 242 |
| Brazil | 238 |
| China | 221 |
| Germany | 199 |
| South Africa | 137 |
| Japan | 129 |
| Chile | 122 |
| France | 106 |
| Korea (South) | 106 |
| Russia | 104 |
| Spain | 102 |
| Argentina | 100 |
| Mexico | 96 |
| Indonesia | 92 |
| Austria | 85 |
| Viet Nam | 76 |
| Peru | 70 |
| New Zealand | 67 |
| Malaysia | 61 |
| Gulf Cooperation Council | 46 |
| Norway | 45 |
| Africa | 52 |
| Eurasian Patent Organization | 41 |
| Denmark | 39 |
| Poland | 34 |
| Ukraine | 30 |
| Taiwan | 29 |
| Slovenia | 23 |
| Egypt | 20 |
| Iceland | 18 |
| Saudi Arabia | 17 |
| Czech Republic | 16 |
| Hungary | 15 |
| Mongolia | 14 |
| Serbia | 11 |
| United Kingdom | 10 |
| Portugal | 9 |
| Turkey | 7 |
| Colombia | 6 |
| Philippines | 6 |
| Kazakhstan | 6 |
| Uruguay | 5 |
| Slovakia | 5 |
| Algeria | 4 |
| Ecuador | 3 |
| Hong Kong (S.A.R.) | 2 |
| United Arab Emirates | 2 |
| Montenegro | 2 |
| Romania | 2 |
| Italy | 1 |
| Tunisia | 1 |
| Yugoslavia/Serbia and Montenegro | 1 |
| Croatia | 1 |
| Belarus | 1 |
| Lithuania | 1 |
| Sweden | 1 |
| Singapore | 1 |
| Panama | 1 |
| Morocco | 1 |
| Jordan | 1 |
Where are Research Centres of Rio Tinto Patents Located?
10 Best Rio Tinto Patents
US6440356B2 is the most popular patent in the Rio Tinto portfolio. It has received 83 citations so far from companies like Berry Metal Company and Technological Resources Pty.
Below is the list of 10 most cited patents of Rio Tinto:
| Publication Number | Citation Count |
| US6440356B2 | 83 |
| US6706909B1 | 65 |
| US7449130B2 | 61 |
| US6447860B1 | 58 |
| US6379424B1 | 54 |
| US6398842B2 | 53 |
| US6572296B2 | 52 |
| US6517605B1 | 51 |
| US20050266570A1 | 49 |
| US20090159434A1 | 48 |
Which Companies are using Rio Tinto Patents to Advance their Research?
If patents or patents from a particular technology area of a company receive a lot of citations, it implies that the technology is being followed and incrementally innovated by the citing companies. It also indicates that citing companies are working on similar and closely related technologies.
The top citing companies in the Rio Tinto patent portfolio are Technological Resources Pty Ltd, Tata Steel, and Minesense Technologies.
List of the top forward citing Companies –
| Company | Number of Patents |
| Technological Resources Pty | 21 |
| Tata Steel | 10 |
| Minesense Technologies | 6 |
| Caterpillar | 5 |
| Shandong Molong Petroleum Machinery | 4 |
| Kobe Steel | 4 |
| Corteva Agriscience | 3 |
| Siemens Mobility | 3 |
| Nippon Light Metal | 3 |
| Norsk Hydro | 2 |
Count of 102 and 103 Type Rejections based on Rio Tinto Patents
Top Rio Tinto Patents used in Rejecting Most Patent Applications
| Patent Number | Count of Rejected Applications |
| US8612084B2 | 7 |
| US8857915B2 | 6 |
| US6368548B1 | 5 |
| US7163974B2 | 5 |
| US8240480B2 | 5 |
| US20050224145A1 | 4 |
| US6989126B2 | 4 |
| US7575622B2 | 4 |
| US20050050996A1 | 4 |
| US20040045638A1 | 4 |
| US8875901B2 | 4 |
| US7914601B2 | 3 |
| US20060133949A1 | 3 |
| US8315838B2 | 3 |
| US20130098807A1 | 3 |
Their most intelligent mining is the Gudai-Darri (Koodaideri) iron ore project. Gudai-Darri features more than 70 design breakthroughs, in addition to technologies already in use across Rio Tinto, such as autonomous vehicles, trains, and drills.
Fully integrated mine operating and simulation systems, such as digital twin technology, will be used in the mines. Digital twins, which were pioneered by NASA, are virtual representations of a physical environment – such as a space station – that allow you to swiftly test multiple scenarios. These twins blend data from real-world processing plants with historical data, such as design and production. This allows the field personnel and those in our remote operations centre to view the same data and make decisions based on real-time data in seconds rather than hours or days. They can also test methods for increasing output without destroying parts or disturbing operations.
EXCLUSIVE INSIGHTS COMING SOON!
What are Rio Tinto’s key innovation segments?