USPTO Patent Assignments Scraper

Extract public patent ownership-transfer records from the official USPTO Assignment Center.

This actor searches USPTO patent assignment records by assignee, assignor, patent number, application number, publication number, PCT number, and reel/frame. It saves clean rows with conveyance text, parties, recordation dates, execution dates, patent identifiers, invention titles, and official document-image URLs when USPTO provides them.

Use it for IP due diligence, ownership monitoring, patent portfolio cleanup, M&A research, and competitive-intelligence workflows that need repeatable USPTO assignment data.

What does USPTO Patent Assignments Scraper do?

• 🔎 Searches the official USPTO Assignment Center public patent endpoint.
• 🧾 Extracts assignment-level conveyance records.
• 👥 Captures assignor and assignee names.
• 🏢 Includes public assignee address fields when returned.
• 📅 Saves recordation, execution, receipt, and mail dates.
• 🧠 Adds patent/application/publication/PCT identifiers.
• 📄 Includes invention titles, inventors, filing dates, and issue dates.
• 🔗 Provides source URLs and document image URLs.
• 📦 Exports structured JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, and HTML through Apify datasets.

Who is it for?

• ⚖️ IP attorneys checking title chains before prosecution, licensing, or litigation.
• 🏦 M&A diligence teams validating whether target-company patents were assigned, pledged, or released.
• 🤝 Patent brokers building ownership and lien histories for sale packages.
• 🧪 Competitive-intelligence teams watching patent transfers by company name.
• 🏢 Corporate legal teams monitoring recorded assignments for subsidiaries and counterparties.
• 📊 Data teams enriching internal patent databases with USPTO ownership-transfer records.

Why use this actor?

USPTO assignment data is public, but manual Assignment Center searches are slow when you need to check many names or patent identifiers. This actor turns that workflow into a repeatable API job. You can run a small one-off search from the Apify UI or schedule recurring company-name monitoring and pull results into your legal operations stack.

Data extracted

Field	Description
searchQuery	The input query used for the record
searchBy	USPTO field used for the search
resultType	assignment or summary
reelFrame	USPTO reel/frame identifier
conveyance	Public conveyance text, such as assignment, lien, merger, or release
recordationDate	Date the assignment was recorded
executionDate	Assignor execution date when available
assignors	Assignor names and execution dates
assignees	Assignee names and public address fields
applicationNumber	USPTO application number
patentNumber	Patent number
publicationNumber	Publication number
pctNumber	PCT number
inventionTitle	Patent title returned by USPTO
inventors	Inventor names returned by USPTO
imageUrl	Official assignment document-image URL when available
sourceUrl	Search URL for traceability
rawRecordId	Stable internal ID derived from source record identifiers
scrapedAt	Timestamp when the row was saved

How much does it cost to scrape USPTO patent assignments?

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing:

• Start event: $0.005 per run.
• Result event: tiered per saved record.
• BRONZE result price: $0.000023357 per saved record.
• Higher-volume tiers decrease down to the platform floor of $0.00001 per saved record.

Apify shows the exact price before you start a run. You control cost with maxItems.

Input options

queries

An array of searches. Each search has:

• query — name, number, or reel/frame.
• searchBy — USPTO search field.

Supported fields:

• exactAssigneeName
• partialAssigneeName
• exactAssignorName
• partialAssignorName
• applicationNumber
• patentNumber
• publicationNumber
• pctNumber
• reelFrame

maxItems

Maximum rows to save across all searches. Keep this low for testing and raise it for production jobs.

startDate and endDate

Optional recordation-date filters in YYYY-MM-DD format. These are applied after USPTO returns assignment records.

includeSummaryOnlyResults

Partial name searches can return patent-property summary rows without reel/frame assignment details. Keep this enabled for discovery workflows, or disable it when you only want assignment rows.

Example input: patent number

{
  "queries": [
    { "query": "7379963", "searchBy": "patentNumber" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 25
}

Example input: assignee monitoring

{
  "queries": [
    { "query": "GOOGLE", "searchBy": "exactAssigneeName" },
    { "query": "MICROSOFT", "searchBy": "exactAssigneeName" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 200,
  "startDate": "2020-01-01"
}

Example input: reel/frame lookup

{
  "queries": [
    { "query": "11235/906", "searchBy": "reelFrame" }
  ],
  "maxItems": 10
}

Example output

{
  "searchQuery": "7379963",
  "searchBy": "patentNumber",
  "resultType": "assignment",
  "reelFrame": "11235/906",
  "conveyance": "ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST",
  "recordationDate": "11/06/2000",
  "assignors": [{ "name": "KHARE, ROHIT", "executionDate": "07/20/2000" }],
  "assignees": [{ "name": "KNOWNOW, INC.", "country": "UNITED STATES" }],
  "applicationNumber": "09615663",
  "patentNumber": "7379963",
  "inventionTitle": "DELIVERY OF ANY TYPE OF INFORMATION TO ANYONE ANYTIME ANYWHERE",
  "imageUrl": "https://assignmentcenter.uspto.gov/ipas/search/api/v2/public/download/patent/11235/906"
}

How to run

1. Open the actor on Apify.
2. Add one or more USPTO assignment searches.
3. Choose a maxItems limit.
4. Start the run.
5. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, Excel, XML, RSS, or HTML.
6. Use the run log to review which queries were fetched.

Tips for better results

• Use exact assignee or exact assignor searches when you need full assignment records.
• Use partial-name searches for discovery, then rerun exact names for deeper assignment detail.
• Use patent or application numbers when validating one asset.
• Use reel/frame when you already have a specific assignment citation.
• Keep company names in the same style you see in USPTO records.
• Set maxItems high enough for large corporate portfolios.

Integrations

You can connect results to:

• IP docketing systems for ownership-history enrichment.
• M&A diligence spreadsheets.
• Internal patent data warehouses.
• Slack or email alerts for scheduled company-name monitoring.
• CRM or deal rooms for patent brokerage workflows.
• BI dashboards tracking assignment volume over time.

API usage with Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: process.env.APIFY_TOKEN });
const run = await client.actor('automation-lab/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper').call({
  queries: [{ query: '7379963', searchBy: 'patentNumber' }],
  maxItems: 25,
});

const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

API usage with Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient
import os

client = ApifyClient(os.environ['APIFY_TOKEN'])
run = client.actor('automation-lab/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper').call(run_input={
    'queries': [{'query': '7379963', 'searchBy': 'patentNumber'}],
    'maxItems': 25,
})
items = client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).list_items().items
print(items)

API usage with cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/automation-lab~uspto-patent-assignments-scraper/runs?token=$APIFY_TOKEN" \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"queries":[{"query":"7379963","searchBy":"patentNumber"}],"maxItems":25}'

MCP integration

Use the Apify MCP server to call this actor from AI tools:

$npx -y @apify/actors-mcp-server --actors automation-lab/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper

MCP URL:

https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=automation-lab/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper

Claude Desktop JSON configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "apify-uspto-assignments": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@apify/actors-mcp-server", "--actors", "automation-lab/uspto-patent-assignments-scraper"],
      "env": {
        "APIFY_TOKEN": "YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN"
      }
    }
  }
}

Example prompts:

• "Find USPTO patent assignments for patent 7379963 and summarize the ownership chain."
• "Monitor exact assignee GOOGLE and return newly recorded assignments."
• "Look up reel/frame 11235/906 and extract conveyance, parties, and document URL."

Scheduling

Schedule this actor to run daily, weekly, or monthly for recurring company-name monitoring. Use exact assignee names and a date filter to keep scheduled runs focused.

Quality notes

The actor uses the official public USPTO Assignment Center API. No browser automation or proxy is required for normal public patent-assignment searches.

Limitations

• Partial-name searches may return summary rows without assignment conveyance details.
• USPTO data can contain historical spelling variations and entity-name changes.
• Date filters are applied after records are returned by USPTO.
• The actor does not provide legal advice or validate title completeness.
• Availability depends on the public USPTO Assignment Center service.

FAQ

Can this actor prove patent ownership?

No. It extracts public USPTO assignment records for research and diligence. Legal conclusions about title, liens, releases, or enforceability should be reviewed by qualified counsel.

Does it need a USPTO login?

No. The actor uses public USPTO Assignment Center patent assignment search endpoints.

Troubleshooting

Why did I get summary rows instead of assignment rows?

Partial-name searches can return property summaries. Use exact assignee or exact assignor searches for assignment rows with reel/frame and conveyance data.

Why are some address fields empty?

The actor only returns public fields provided by USPTO for that record. Historical records often have sparse address metadata.

Why does a company name have fewer results than expected?

Try alternate legal names, former names, punctuation variants, and subsidiaries. Assignment records often use exact legal entity names.

Legality

This actor extracts public USPTO assignment records. Users are responsible for using the data lawfully, respecting USPTO terms, and complying with privacy, professional-responsibility, and jurisdiction-specific rules.

Related scrapers

Other Automation Lab actors that may fit adjacent workflows:

• https://apify.com/automation-lab/uspto-trademark-status-checker
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/company-research-scraper
• https://apify.com/automation-lab/website-contact-finder

Changelog

0.1

• Initial public USPTO patent assignment search implementation.
• Supports name, patent/application/publication/PCT number, and reel/frame searches.
• Saves assignment parties, dates, conveyance, patent identifiers, and source URLs.

Support

If a run does not return the record you expected, include the exact USPTO query, search field, run ID, and a link to the public USPTO result you are comparing against.