USPTO Patents — Patent and Application Search
The US Patent and Trademark Office's patent database via the PatentsView API. Search and retrieve granted US patents (and published applications) by keyword, assignee, inventor, or patent number. ~12 million issued patents going back to 1976. Free, no auth.
Why this matters for AI agents
Patents are the public record of what's been invented and who claims to have invented it. For competitive intelligence, IP due diligence, freedom-to-operate research, or technology landscaping, the USPTO is the source. The data is structured: claims, citations, family members, prosecution history, assignment changes.
Two core flows:
1. Keyword search. "What patents exist for CRISPR gene editing?" → search_patents({query: "CRISPR gene editing"}) → top patents by relevance with title, abstract, assignee, filing date, patent number.
2. Specific patent. "What's in patent US 10,123,456?" → get_patent({number: "US10123456"}) → full record: claims, citations, family, current owner.
For company-level IP due diligence (combining patents with SEC IP risk disclosures and trademarks), see the Patent Due Diligence recipe.
Citable URI
pipeworx://uspto/patent/{number}
Patent numbers are stable forever. Embed in agent output as the canonical citation.
What "patents" includes
| Type | Prefix | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Utility patent | (none / numeric) | Standard invention patent (machines, processes, articles) |
| Design patent | D | Ornamental design (e.g., D123,456 = a chair design) |
| Plant patent | PP | Asexually reproduced plant variety |
| Reissue | RE | Corrected version of an earlier patent |
| Reexamination | (E numbers) | Validity-challenged patents under review |
The default search returns utility patents. For design or plant patents, filter by type in results.
Update cadence
- New patents publish on Tuesdays (USPTO's grant-day cadence).
- New applications publish on Thursdays.
- Pipeworx caches results with 24-hour TTL — fine for almost all use cases. For Tuesday-morning fresh-grant news, set
Cache-Control: no-cache.
Common pitfalls
- Keyword search ≠ freedom-to-operate.
search_patentsfinds patents whose text mentions your terms. It does not tell you whether a patent CLAIMS what you'd be doing. FTO requires reading claims carefully — Pipeworx returns them, but interpretation needs a patent attorney. - Assignee normalization. "Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.", "VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.", "Vertex Pharmaceuticals" — all the same company. Group case-insensitive after stripping legal suffixes when aggregating.
- Citation density signal. Most-cited patents within a search result are usually the foundational ones. Their citation count is in the patent record — sort by it for "what are the canonical patents in this area."
- Foreign filings absent. USPTO is US-only. For European, Japanese, or Chinese patents, you need EPO, JPO, or CNIPA — not currently in Pipeworx. File via
pipeworx_feedbackif you need them. - Application vs. issued. "Patent pending" applications are searchable but the date you care about is
grant_date, notfiling_date. Applications can be rejected or amended; the issued patent is what matters. - Patent family. Most patents have foreign counterparts (the "family"). The full record lists family members. For a complete picture of a single invention's protection, look at the family across all jurisdictions.
Quick Start
Add to your MCP client (Claude Desktop, Cursor, Windsurf, etc.):
{
"mcpServers": {
"patents": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/patents/mcp"
}
}
}
Or connect to the full Pipeworx gateway for access to all 1395+ data sources:
{
"mcpServers": {
"pipeworx": {
"url": "https://gateway.pipeworx.io/mcp"
}
}
}
Using with ask_pipeworx
Instead of calling tools directly, you can ask questions in plain English:
ask_pipeworx({ question: "your question about Patents data" })
The gateway picks the right tool and fills the arguments automatically.
More
License
MIT