USPTO Patent + Trademark Intel

TL;DR for IP law firms, R&D teams, and VC due-diligence analysts: Pulls USPTO patent and trademark data via PatentsView with normalized fields (assignee, inventor, CPC class, citations, family members, expiration window) plus assignee portfolio and citation-network views. Compared to PatBase or Derwent at thousands per seat, you get USPTO data normalized with forward and backward citations, family-member links, and expiration windows at Apify PPE pricing with optional PatentsView API key for higher limits. Free Apify plan covers exploration on your $5 platform credit. Bring your own PatentsView API key for higher rate limits. Upgrade to Apify Starter ($49/mo) for production volume.

Run it in 30 seconds

# Via the Apify Python SDK
from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>")
run = client.actor("seibs.co/uspto-patent-intel").call(run_input={
    "mode": "patent_search",
    "keywords": [
        "machine learning",
        "neural network"
    ],
    "date_from": "2024-01-01",
    "max_results": 100
})
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Or via curl:

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/seibs.co~uspto-patent-intel/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_APIFY_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"mode": "patent_search", "keywords": ["machine learning", "neural network"], "date_from": "2024-01-01", "max_results": 100}'

Or click "Try for free" on this page if you prefer the no-code UI.

What you get

Each run produces:

• A clean dataset, filterable in the Apify console and downloadable as CSV or JSON
• An OUTPUT.html dashboard preview of your top records
• A sample-output preview at ./.actor/sample-output.json

Per-archetype custom artifacts shipped with this actor:

• patents.csv (normalized assignee, inventor, CPC class, citations)
• citation-network.csv (forward and backward citation pairs for landscape maps)
• expiration-watch.csv (patents inside your expiration_window_months)

---

What does USPTO Patent + Trademark Intel do?

It wraps the free PatentsView API and the keyless TSDR trademark API in eight purpose-built modes that pre-compute the relational intelligence buried in 12M+ patents and millions of trademark filings - co-assignee partnerships (M&A / JV signal), inventor mobility (talent flow), CPC tech-cluster YoY growth, expiration calendars, family and citation graphs, and Nice-class trademark watch.

Features

• Co-assignee mapping - every co-owner pair across an assignee's filings, with joint patent count and sample patents.
• Tech-cluster analysis - YoY filing growth per CPC code with top assignees and top inventors.
• Inventor mobility - per-inventor assignee history with date ranges and patent counts.
• Expiration calendar - patents expiring inside a configurable window, sorted soonest-first.
• Family lookup - continuations, divisionals, CIPs, foreign equivalents, reissues.
• Citation analysis - forward + backward citation samples per patent.
• Trademark watch - keyword + Nice-class search with applicant, attorney, status, goods/services.
• Patent search - keyword / assignee / inventor / CPC search returning flat patent records.

Use cases

• IP law firms - competitive landscape briefs, prior-art mapping, freedom-to-operate analyses.
• R&D teams - tracking what competitors are building and with whom.
• VC and corp dev - tech due diligence and acquisition-target spotting via co-assignment graphs.
• Pharma / generics - patent cliff calendar for branded drug expirations.
• Talent intel - inventor mobility flags engineering moves before press releases.
• Brand protection - daily trademark watch in target Nice classes.

FAQ

Q: Is this legal? A: Yes. USPTO patent and trademark records are public by statute. PatentsView, USPTO PEDS, and the USPTO TSDR / TESS systems are all official US-government public-data interfaces. No login is required to read this data.

Q: Do I need a PatentsView API key? A: Yes. PatentsView (the high-quality bulk patent API the actor uses) requires a free API key. Sign up at https://patentsview.org/apis/keyrequest and the key is issued within minutes. Trademark modes use the USPTO's open TSDR endpoints which do not require a key.

Q: Why might a run fail? A: The three most common failure modes are (1) missing or invalid PatentsView API key, (2) PatentsView rate limits (45 requests/minute per key - the actor auto-throttles but very wide assignee searches can still trip it), and (3) overly broad CPC + keyword combinations that exceed PatentsView's 100,000-record-per-query cap - narrow the date window or split by assignee.

Q: How fresh is the data? A: PatentsView refreshes weekly with USPTO grant publications. Trademark TSDR is real-time. Inventor mobility, co-assignee, and tech-cluster modes are computed on the freshest available PatentsView snapshot at run time.

Q: Can I schedule this daily or weekly? A: Yes. Weekly cron aligns with PatentsView's refresh cadence for patent modes. Daily cron makes sense for trademark watch (TSDR updates daily). Quarterly is appropriate for tech-cluster and expiration-calendar landscape briefs. Apify Schedules + dedupe on patent_number or serial_number gives clean deltas.

Q: Does it integrate with my CRM or data tooling? A: Yes. Apify webhooks POST every run to HubSpot, Salesforce, Pipedrive, Apollo, or any HTTP endpoint. Zapier, Make.com, and n8n templates available. Dataset exports as JSON / CSV / Excel / XML for IP-management systems (Anaqua, CPA Global, Patsnap) or BI tools.

Q: How does pricing work? A: PAY_PER_EVENT. You pay per patent / trademark record emitted, with surcharges on the analytical rollups (co-assignee maps, tech-cluster analyses, inventor-mobility timelines). You only pay for what the actor actually emits.

Related Actors

• sec-edgar-intel - cross-reference patent assignees against SEC filings (8-K M&A activity, 13F position changes) to spot IP-driven acquisitions before they're announced.
• court-records-intel - pull every patent litigation case (E.D. Tex., D. Del., N.D. Cal.) for a given assignee to surface ongoing IP disputes.
• b2b-sales-triggers - convert new patent filings, trademark registrations, and inventor-mobility moves into outbound sales triggers.

Integrations

• Zapier - push to HubSpot/Salesforce/Pipedrive/Apollo
• Make.com - workflow automation
• n8n - self-hosted automation
• Apify webhooks - POST to your endpoint
• API + dataset export (JSON/CSV/Excel/XML)
• MCP / AI agents - call from Claude/GPT/LangChain

Modes

Mode	Input	Output
patent_search	keywords, assignees, inventors, CPC	flat patent records
trademark_search	keywords, Nice classes, applicants	flat trademark records
co_assignee_mapping	assignees	every co-owner pair + joint patent count + sample
tech_cluster_analysis	CPC codes or assignees	top CPC clusters, top assignees, top inventors, YoY growth
inventor_mobility	inventor names	per-inventor assignee history with date ranges
expiration_calendar	assignees + CPC codes + window months	patents expiring inside the window, sorted soonest-first
family_lookup	patent numbers	continuations, divisionals, CIPs, foreign equivalents
citation_analysis	patent numbers	forward + backward citation samples

Input

See .actor/INPUT_SCHEMA.json. Sample - find Apple's co-assignment partners since 2018:

{
    "mode": "co_assignee_mapping",
    "patentsview_api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
    "assignees": ["Apple Inc."],
    "date_from": "2018-01-01",
    "max_results": 1000
}

Pharma patent cliff for the next 18 months:

{
    "mode": "expiration_calendar",
    "patentsview_api_key": "YOUR_KEY",
    "cpc_classes": ["A61K"],
    "expiration_window_months": 18,
    "max_results": 1000
}

Output

Sample output: ./.actor/sample-output.json â€" copy-paste-ready preview of real-looking records.

First record inline:

{
  "mode": "patent_search",
  "scraped_at": "2026-05-13T21:30:08Z",
  "available": true,
  "reason": null,
  "patent_number": "11,884,221",
  "patent_id": "11884221",
  "title": "Adaptive battery thermal management system for EV powertrain",
  "abstract": "An adaptive battery thermal management system that dynamically reroutes coolant flow across battery modules based on per-cell temperature delta and predicted load profile from inverter telemetry...",
  "filing_date": "2022-08-14",
  "grant_date": "2026-04-30",
  "publication_date": "2024-02-22",
  "expiration_date": "2042-08-14",
  "days_to_expiration": 5934,
  "status": "active",
  "assignees": [
    {
      "name": "Lucid Group, Inc.",
      "country": "US",
      "type": "US company"
    }
  ],
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Sara Khoury",
      "location": "Newark, CA, US"
    },
    {
      "name": "Devraj Krishnan",
      "location": "Mountain View, CA, US"
    },
    {
      "name": "Thomas A. Whitlock",
      "location": "San Jose, CA, US"
    }
  ],
  "cpc_codes": [
    {
      "code": "H01M10/63",
      "description": "Cooling means specially adapted for batteries",
      "primary": true
    },
    {
      "code": "B60L58/26",
      "description": "Cooling devices for traction batteries",
      "primary": false
    }
  ],
  "ipc_codes": [
    "H01M10/63",
    "B60L58/26"
  ],
  "application_number": "17/887,142",
  "examiner_name": "Sun, Eugenia",
  "claims_count": 22,
  "independent_claims_count": 3,
  "family_id": "F2208140001",
  "family_members": [
    {
      "patent_number": "EP4408888A1",
      "country": "EP",
      "kind_code": "A1",
      "relation": "foreign-equivalent"
    },
    {
      "patent_number": "CN117220444A",
      "country": "CN",
      "kind_code": "A",
      "relation": "foreign-equivalent"
    }
  ],
  "forward_citations": {
    "count": 4,
    "sample": [
      {
        "patent_number": "12,002,118",
        "assignee": "Rivian Automotive LLC",
        "cited_date": "2026-03-12"
      }
    ]
  },
  "backward_citations": {
    "count": 38,
    "sample": [
      {
        "patent_number": "10,541,448",
        "assignee": "Tesla, Inc.",
        "cited_date": "2020-01-21"
      }
    ]
  },
  "serial_number": null,
  "registration_number": null,
  "mark_text": null,
  "mark_image_url": null,
  "status_code": null,
  "status_date": null,
  "registration_date": null,
  "applicant_name": null,
  "applicant_address": null,
  "attorney_name": null,
  "classes": [],
  "goods_services_description": null,
  "co_assignee_pair": null,
  "inventor_mobility": null,
  "tech_cluster": null
}

One record per patent / trademark / intelligence aggregation. Sample patent record:

{
    "mode": "patent_search",
    "patent_number": "11,000,000",
    "title": "Method and apparatus for ...",
    "filing_date": "2018-06-12",
    "grant_date": "2021-05-11",
    "expiration_date": "2038-06-12",
    "days_to_expiration": 4412,
    "status": "active",
    "assignees": [{"name": "Apple Inc.", "country": "US", "type": "US company"}],
    "inventors": [{"name": "Jane Doe", "location": "Cupertino, CA, US"}],
    "cpc_codes": [{"code": "G06F1/3231", "primary": true}],
    "claims_count": 24,
    "available": true,
    "scraped_at": "2026-05-14T12:00:00Z"
}

Failed lookups still emit a row with available: false and a reason.

Pricing

Pay-per-event:

Event	Price
patent_record	$0.004
trademark_record	$0.004
citation_enrichment (per patent)	$0.005
family_lookup (per patent)	$0.005
intelligence_record (co-assignee pair / inventor profile / cluster)	$0.012

Intelligence aggregations cost more because each row is built from multiple PatentsView queries.

FAQ

Q: Do I need an API key? A: PatentsView is free but key-gated - get one at https://patentsview.org. Paste it into patentsview_api_key. TSDR (trademarks) is keyless.

Q: What's the rate limit? A: PatentsView allows 1000 req/min; the actor stays well below this for any realistic run size.

Q: How is expiration_date computed? A: Estimated as filing_date + 20 years for utility patents. Maintenance-fee lapses, terminal disclaimers, and design-patent terms are not modeled - treat the date as a directional planning input.

Q: Why doesn't tech_cluster_analysis return YoY growth on every CPC? A: YoY growth requires at least two years of filings inside the cluster. Sparse clusters return yoy_growth_pct: null.

Save your input as an Apify Task

Apify Tasks let you save a configured input once and re-run it with a single click - no need to re-type search terms, locations, filters, or tier settings every time. Tasks are the foundation for everything that comes next: schedules, monitor mode, and webhook routing all attach to a saved Task, not to the raw actor.

Steps to save your current input as a Task:

1. On this actor's Apify Store page, click Run with your input fully configured.
2. Click the Save as task button at the top of the run page.
3. Name the task something memorable (e.g. Battery patents from competitors - daily).
4. Reload the task page and click Start anytime to re-run with the same inputs.

Tasks unlock the next two features below: scheduling and monitor mode.

Run this weekly with Apify Schedules

Apify Schedules cron-run any saved Task automatically. Pair this with the saved Task above and you get hands-off recurring runs with no manual clicks, no missed weeks, and a steady stream of fresh data into your CRM or warehouse.

Steps to schedule a Task:

1. Save your input as a Task (see above).
2. Go to https://console.apify.com/schedules and click Create new schedule.
3. Pick your Task and set the cron expression. Common patterns:
   • Daily at 9am UTC: 0 9 * * *
   • Weekly on Mondays at 9am: 0 9 * * 1
   • Monthly on the 1st: 0 9 1 * *
4. Save. Apify will run your Task on that schedule automatically, push the dataset to whatever integrations you have wired up, and fire run-completion webhooks for downstream automation.

Run daily to monitor for new patent applications, grants, and assignee changes in the technology areas you track.

Monitor mode (v2, beta)

Monitor mode is the v2 evolution of this actor and is currently in BETA. It turns a recurring schedule into a true change-feed instead of a firehose of duplicate records.

How it works:

• When this actor runs under an Apify Schedule, monitor mode is enabled automatically.
• Instead of emitting ALL records every run, it emits ONLY records that are NEW or CHANGED since the last scheduled run.
• A digest record summarizes the delta (X new, Y changed, Z removed) at the top of every run.
• Optional: provide a Slack or email webhook URL in the monitor_webhook_url input field and the digest fires there too, so your team gets the delta in their inbox or channel without polling the dataset.
• Cost: a single scheduled_delta_run event ($0.05) per scheduled run, plus standard PPE on emitted delta records only. Predictable monthly cost, no surprise bills from re-charging for unchanged records.

Monitor mode is rolling out to the top 3 actors first (this one included if it's hotel-motel-lead-finder, google-maps-reviews-pro, or mcp-accounting-firm-leads). Full portfolio coverage by end of June.

Support

Open an issue on the actor's GitHub or contact via Apify Store. Include the run ID and input config.

Changelog

See ./CHANGELOG.md.

Found this useful?

If this actor saved you time or money, please consider leaving a quick review on the Apify Store. Reviews help other buyers find work that solves their problem and let me prioritize the features paying customers actually use. Leave a review: https://apify.com/seibs.co/uspto-patent-intel#reviews