USPTO Has a Free Patent API — Search 8M+ Patents (No Key Required)

[MyrinNew]

Did you know you can search every US patent since 1976 with a free API call?


I didn't — until I needed to check if my idea was already patented.


The API

USPTO's PatentsView API is completely free. No API key, no registration.






import requests

def search_patents(query, limit=5):
resp = requests.post('https://api.patentsview.org/patents/query', json={
'q': {'_text_any': {'patent_abstract': query}},
'f': ['patent_number', 'patent_title', 'patent_date',
'assignee_organization', 'patent_abstract'],
'o': {'per_page': limit},
's': [{'patent_date': 'desc'}]
})
return resp.json().get('patents', [])

# What AI patents were filed recently?
patents = search_patents('artificial intelligence medical diagnosis')
for p in patents:
company = p.get('assignees', [{}])[0].get('assignee_organization', 'Individual')
print(f"[{p['patent_number']}] {p['patent_title']}")
print(f" {p['patent_date']} | {company}\n")







Real Use Cases

1. Check Before You Build

Before spending months on a product, check if someone already patented the core idea:






patents = search_patents('voice assistant smart home control')
print(f"Found {len(patents)} existing patents")







2. Competitive Intelligence

What is Google working on?






resp = requests.post('https://api.patentsview.org/patents/query', json={
'q': {'assignee_organization': 'Google LLC'},
'f': ['patent_number', 'patent_title', 'patent_date'],
'o': {'per_page': 10},
's': [{'patent_date': 'desc'}]
})
for p in resp.json().get('patents', []):
print(f" [{p['patent_date']}] {p['patent_title']}")







3. Investment Research

Count patents by company to gauge R&D activity:






for company in ['Apple Inc.', 'Google LLC', 'Microsoft Corporation']:
resp = requests.post('https://api.patentsview.org/patents/query', json={
'q': {'assignee_organization': company},
'f': ['patent_number'],
'o': {'per_page': 1}
})
total = resp.json().get('total_patent_count', 0)
print(f"{company}: {total:,} patents")







Full Toolkit

I built a CLI wrapper with CSV/JSON export:






python search_patents.py "blockchain supply chain" --format csv --output patents.csv







👉 GitHub: patent-api-toolkit


Part of my Research API Suite — 10 free API toolkits.





Have you ever searched patents programmatically? What for?





More tools: Apify scrapers | GitHub




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