# Japanese Automotive Patent Watch (`drlipton/japanese-patent-watch`) Actor

Recent patents for Japanese automotive assignees, from Google Patents. English title, snippet, publication number, dates and inventor. $0.10 per patent. Does not include claims, citations, J-PlatPat, IR releases or JASO.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/drlipton/japanese-patent-watch.md
- **Developed by:** [Joel Smith](https://apify.com/drlipton) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, Automation, Lead generation
- **Security:** Limited permissions
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 66.7% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

$100.00 / 1,000 patent/tech item returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/actors/running/actors-in-store.md#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

An Actor is a serverless cloud program that runs on the Apify platform. It has two run modes.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.

Apify vocabulary and the platform model are defined once, in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md.

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.

Do not guess an integration path. Every one of them is in the agent quickstart at https://apify.com/agents.md: the Apify MCP server, Agent Skills with the Apify CLI, the JavaScript and Python clients, the REST API, and the account-free path for an agent with no human to sign in. It also carries the rule on stating cost before the first paid run.

For examples already wired to this Actor's own input schema, see the [API](#api) section below.

Each client library has reference documentation the quickstart does not restate: [JavaScript/TypeScript](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md) (`npm install apify-client`) and [Python](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md) (`pip install apify-client`).

# README

## Japanese Automotive Patent Watch

Recent patents for Japanese automotive assignees, read from Google Patents.

Each result is one patent. You are charged $0.10 for each patent returned (`patent-result`).

### What you get

| Field | Content |
|---|---|
| `source` | `google-patents` |
| `source_url` | English Google Patents page for the publication number |
| `assignee` / `assignee_normalized` | The assignee you asked for |
| `title_en` | Title as Google Patents returns it. Often English. |
| `title_ja` | The same title when it is Japanese, otherwise empty |
| `abstract_en` or `abstract_ja` | The Google Patents snippet, not the full abstract |
| `publication_date`, `application_date`, `priority_date` | From the Google Patents record |
| `inventors` | Inventor string when Google Patents includes one |
| `legal_status` | `granted` for B-numbers, `published` for A-numbers |
| `technical_keywords` | Matches against a fixed automotive/HMI word list |

`key_claims_en` and `ipc_codes` are empty unless you pass IPC codes or keywords in the input. This actor does not fetch claims, citations, patent family members, J-PlatPat records, IR releases, or JASO standards.

### Input

- `assignees`: one or more of `DENSO`, `AISIN`, `PANASONIC`, `MITSUBISHI_ELECTRIC`, `ALPINE`, `HITACHI`, `YAZAKI`, `JTEKT`, `NSK`, `TOYODA_GOSEI`, plus the OEM presets in the input form.
- `date_from` / `date_to`: publication date window. Default is the last 90 days.
- `max_results`: default 20, split across the assignees you select.

### Example

Assignees `ALPINE`, from 1 August 2026, max 2 results, returned granted patents including JP7903921B2 and JP7902229B2.

# Actor input Schema

## `mode` (type: `string`):

What to search: patents (J-PlatPat), IR sites, standards, or all

## `assignees` (type: `array`):

Japanese companies to monitor (DENSO, AISIN, PANASONIC, MITSUBISHI_ELECTRIC, ALPINE, HITACHI, YAZAKI, JTEKT, NSK, TOYODA_GOSEI, TOYOTA, HONDA, NISSAN, SUZUKI, SUBARU, MAZDA). Default: top 10 Tier1s.

## `ipc_codes` (type: `array`):

Optional IPC classification codes (e.g., G06F3, B60K, H04N). Leave empty for all automotive-relevant codes.

## `keywords` (type: `array`):

Technical keywords to filter/rank results (e.g., HMI, instrument cluster, ASIL, AUTOSAR, local dimming).

## `date_from` (type: `string`):

Start date (YYYY-MM-DD). Default: 30 days ago.

## `date_to` (type: `string`):

End date (YYYY-MM-DD). Default: today.

## `max_results` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of results to return.

## `translate` (type: `boolean`):

Translate Japanese titles/abstracts/claims to English using DeepL.

## `deepl_api_key` (type: `string`):

DeepL API key for translation. Use Apify secret or env var DEEPL_API_KEY. Free tier: 500k chars/mo.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "mode": "patents",
  "assignees": [
    "DENSO",
    "AISIN",
    "PANASONIC",
    "MITSUBISHI_ELECTRIC",
    "ALPINE",
    "HITACHI",
    "YAZAKI",
    "JTEKT",
    "NSK",
    "TOYODA_GOSEI"
  ],
  "max_results": 20,
  "translate": true
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

No description

## `summary` (type: `string`):

No description

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("drlipton/japanese-patent-watch").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = {}

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("drlipton/japanese-patent-watch").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print(f"💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/{run.default_dataset_id}")
for item in client.dataset(run.default_dataset_id).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{}' |
apify call drlipton/japanese-patent-watch --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=fetch-actor-details,drlipton/japanese-patent-watch"
        }
    }
}
```

The hosted server signs you in with OAuth on first connect, so no API token belongs in this config. Clients without OAuth support can send an `Authorization: Bearer <APIFY_API_TOKEN>` header instead, using a token from API & Integrations in Apify Console (https://console.apify.com/settings/integrations).

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/WeR7By54C5MnmxCdB/builds/qhgwJqwIMtv6vUphw/openapi.json