USPTO Patent API — Free US Patent Search API (No Key)

TL;DR

The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) provides a set of open APIs for searching patent filings, trademarks, and related intellectual property data. The search endpoint allows querying patents by keyword, inventor, assignee, classification, and filing date. Results include patent titles, abstracts, inventors, and filing metadata. No API key required for basic search access. Covers all US patents from 1976 to present, plus published applications.

Quick start: https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search

No API key needed — US government open data!

How to Use This API

1. Search Patents by Keyword

Find patents related to "quantum computing" filed in the last year:

https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search?q=quantum+computing

2. Filter by Inventor Name

https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search?q=inventor:"Nikola+Tesla"

3. JavaScript — Patent Search Widget

async function searchPatents(query) {
  const r = await fetch(
    `https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search?q=${encodeURIComponent(query)}&limit=10`
  );
  const data = await r.json();
  return data.results;
}
searchPatents('solar panel').then(patents => {
  patents.forEach(p => {
    console.log(p.patentNumber, '—', p.inventionTitle);
    console.log('  Inventor:', p.inventorName);
  });
});

4. Python — Search and Export

import requests, json

response = requests.get(
  'https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search',
  params={'q': 'machine learning', 'limit': 5}
)
data = response.json()
for patent in data['results']:
    print(f"{patent['patentNumber']}: {patent['inventionTitle']}")
    print(f"  Filed: {patent['filingDate']}")

Search "quantum computing": https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search?q=quantum+computing&limit=3

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Frequently Asked Questions

What patent years are covered?: Utility patents from 1976 onward, plus published patent applications from 2001. Design patents and plant patents are also searchable with their own filters.
What fields are returned?: Results include patent number, title, abstract, inventor name, assignee, filing date, issue date, US class, international class, and patent status.
Can I search by patent classification?: Yes — use q=class:"705/1" for US classification or q=ipc:"G06Q" for Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC) filters.
Is the full patent text available?: The search API returns metadata. Full PDF documents and detailed specifications are available through the USPTO Patent Center at patft.uspto.gov.
Are there rate limits?: The USPTO APIs have generous rate limits for non-commercial use. They recommend caching results and keeping reasonable intervals between requests.
Can I search trademarks too?: The patent search API is separate from the trademark search. The USPTO also offers a Trademark Status and Document Retrieval (TSDR) API for trademark data.

API Details

API URL: https://developer.uspto.gov/api/v1/patents/search
Documentation: developer.uspto.gov
Category: Intellectual Property
Authentication: Not Required
Geographic Coverage: United States — all patents filed with USPTO

What You Can Build

Patent landscape analysis tool for competitive research
Inventor portfolio tracker showing all patents by a given person
Patent expiration calendar for pharmaceutical and tech industries
Innovation heatmap showing patent filing density by region
Technology trend dashboard tracking keywords across patent classes