Patent Search Tracker

What does Patent Search Tracker do?

Patent Search Tracker searches US patents via the free PatentsView API (powered by the USPTO) and returns structured records enriched with impact scores, patent age, years until expiry, citation density, and inventor analytics — no API key or subscription required. Search by keyword, assignee company, inventor name, or date range, and sort by grant date or citation count to surface the most influential patents in any technology domain. Schedule runs on Apify to continuously monitor new filings from competitors or track the evolution of a technology landscape over time.

Why use Patent Search Tracker?

• Free public USPTO data with zero setup — the Actor queries PatentsView, a publicly funded API maintained by the US Department of Commerce, so there is no API key to register for, no rate-limit fees, and no scraping involved.
• Rich computed analytics per patent — beyond raw metadata, each record includes a composite impact score (0–100 from citation count and claims breadth), patent age in years, estimated years until expiry, and a citation density per claim metric for normalised influence measurement.
• Multi-dimensional search in one run — combine keyword search across titles and abstracts with assignee organisation filtering and inventor name lookup in a single query; add date ranges to isolate recent filings or expired prior art.
• Competitive IP intelligence — look up every patent filed by Apple, Google, or any competitor in a specific technology area; the assignee_country_count field reveals the geographic spread of their IP portfolio.
• Flexible sorting for different research goals — sort by date_desc for the latest grants, date_asc for historical context, or citations_desc to find the most-cited (most influential) patents in a domain.

How to use Patent Search Tracker

1. Go to the Apify Store and find Patent Search Tracker.
2. Click Try for free to open the input configuration form.
3. Enter at least one of: a Keyword (searched in patent title and abstract), an Assignee company name, or an Inventor last name.
4. Optionally set Date From and Date To in YYYY-MM-DD format to filter by grant date range.
5. Set Max Results (1–200) and choose a Sort By order.
6. Click Start — results typically arrive within a few seconds to a minute depending on result count.
7. Download the dataset as JSON, CSV, or Excel, or integrate via the Apify API.

Input

Field	Type	Default	Description
keyword	string	—	Search term matched against patent title and abstract
assignee	string	—	Assignee organisation name (e.g. Apple Inc, Google LLC)
inventor	string	—	Inventor last name to search for
dateFrom	string	—	Grant date lower bound in YYYY-MM-DD format
dateTo	string	—	Grant date upper bound in YYYY-MM-DD format
maxResults	integer	25	Maximum patents to return (1–200)
sortBy	string	date_desc	Sort order: date_desc, date_asc, citations_desc

Output

[
  {
    "patent_number": "11987654",
    "title": "Transformer-based neural network for on-device image recognition",
    "abstract": "A neural network architecture employing multi-head self-attention mechanisms optimised for inference on low-power edge devices...",
    "grant_date": "2024-03-12",
    "patent_year": 2024,
    "patent_type": "utility",
    "inventors": [
      { "first_name": "Sarah", "last_name": "Chen" },
      { "first_name": "Raj", "last_name": "Patel" }
    ],
    "assignees": [
      { "organization": "Apple Inc", "country": "US" }
    ],
    "citations_count": 14,
    "claims_count": 22,
    "processing_time_days": 1248,
    "patent_age_years": 2.5,
    "years_until_expiry": 17.5,
    "age_tier": "very_recent",
    "impact_score": 62.4,
    "inventor_count": 2,
    "assignee_country_count": 1,
    "claims_per_inventor": 11.0,
    "citation_density_per_claim": 0.6364
  },
  {
    "patent_number": "10543210",
    "title": "Method and apparatus for real-time supply chain visibility using distributed ledger",
    "abstract": "Systems and methods for tracking goods across global supply chains using a permissioned blockchain network...",
    "grant_date": "2020-01-28",
    "patent_year": 2020,
    "patent_type": "utility",
    "inventors": [
      { "first_name": "James", "last_name": "Morrison" }
    ],
    "assignees": [
      { "organization": "IBM Corp", "country": "US" }
    ],
    "citations_count": 83,
    "claims_count": 30,
    "processing_time_days": 1102,
    "patent_age_years": 6.6,
    "years_until_expiry": 13.4,
    "age_tier": "mature",
    "impact_score": 80.25,
    "inventor_count": 1,
    "assignee_country_count": 1,
    "claims_per_inventor": 30.0,
    "citation_density_per_claim": 2.7667
  }
]

Data fields

Field	Description
patent_number	USPTO patent number
title	Patent title
abstract	Patent abstract (up to 1,000 characters)
grant_date	Date the patent was granted (YYYY-MM-DD)
patent_year	Year of grant
patent_type	Patent type (e.g. utility, design, plant)
inventors	List of {first_name, last_name} objects for each inventor
assignees	List of {organization, country} objects for each assignee
citations_count	Number of times this patent has been cited by later patents
claims_count	Total number of patent claims — proxy for scope of protection
processing_time_days	Days from filing to grant
patent_age_years	How many years have elapsed since the grant date
years_until_expiry	Estimated years remaining before 20-year term expiry (negative if expired)
age_tier	very_recent, recent, mature, aging, near_expiry_or_expired
impact_score	0–100 composite of log-scaled citations (70 pts) + claims breadth (30 pts)
inventor_count	Number of named inventors — proxy for team size
assignee_country_count	Distinct countries among assignees — geographic IP diversity
claims_per_inventor	Average claims per inventor — individual productivity metric
citation_density_per_claim	Citations divided by claims — normalised influence score

Cost estimation

Pricing is Pay-Per-Event at $0.002 per patent fetched.

Scenario	Patents	Estimated cost
Small — 25 patents (default)	25	$0.05
Medium — 100 patents	100	$0.20
Large — 200 patents	200	$0.40

A comprehensive technology landscape study covering 200 patents costs under $0.50. The PatentsView API is fully free and publicly funded, so there are no upstream data costs.

FAQ

Q: Does this cover international patents (EPO, WIPO, JPO)? A: The Actor currently queries PatentsView which covers USPTO-granted US patents only. For international patent coverage, you would need to use additional data sources. US patents are the most commonly analysed for competitive intelligence given the size and transparency of the USPTO dataset.

Q: How current is the patent data? A: PatentsView updates weekly with newly granted patents from the USPTO. The most recently granted patents typically appear within one to two weeks of their official grant date. Use sortBy: date_desc and set dateFrom to the prior week to fetch only the newest filings in a scheduled run.

Q: What is the impact score and how should I interpret it? A: The impact score is a 0–100 composite designed to surface influential patents. It weights citation count on a logarithmic scale (up to 70 points) to prevent a single highly-cited outlier from dominating, and adds up to 30 points for broad claim scope. A score above 60 generally indicates a widely-cited patent with substantial claim coverage; below 20 suggests a narrowly scoped or rarely cited patent.

This Actor queries the PatentsView public API, which is operated by the US Department of Commerce and funded by the USPTO. Patent data is in the public domain. The Actor does not access any private patent filing information or confidential prosecution history. Patent term calculations use a simplified 20-year-from-grant rule and do not account for maintenance fees, terminal disclaimers, or patent term adjustments; consult a patent attorney for legal expiry determinations.

Keywords: US patent search API, patent database scraper, USPTO patent tracker, PatentsView API, patent competitive intelligence, IP landscape analysis, patent citation analysis, inventor search tool, assignee patent lookup, patent expiry tracker

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