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Why Explore Patent Data?

NOTICE: The legacy API has entered maintenance mode and will soon be discontinued. We recommend users move to Search API.

Welcome to the prototype PatentsView API, supported by the US Patent and Trademark Office. The USPTO is the federal agency for granting US patents and registering trademarks. The US patenting system encourages innovators and entrepreneurs worldwide to publish their inventions for worldwide use and adoption.

The PatentsView API is intended to inspire the exploration and enhanced understanding of US intellectual property (IP) and innovation systems. The database driving the API is regularly updated and integrates the best available tools for inventor disambiguation and data quality control. We hope researchers and developers alike will explore the API to discover people and companies and to visualize trends and patterns across the US innovation landscape.

The API contains 7 unique endpoints that users can query to tell new stories such as:

  1. Which companies hold patents in 3D printing? Where are they located? In which technologies were these companies innovating before and after they received 3D printing patents?
  2. What technology has been most commonly patented in the US in the last 5 years? What are the top US cities producing those patents? What are the top non-US cities generating those patents?
  3. Who are the most prolific US inventors in the last 3 decades? How has their patenting activity (number of patents, types of patents, and co-inventors) changed over time?

The current version of the PatentsView API delivers data on patents granted through March 31, 2024.