USPTO Patents Scraper

USPTO Patents Scraper

Scrape USPTO patents by keyword, assignee, inventor, or date range, up to a million per run. Each patent comes with its title, abstract, assignee, inventor, publication date, and country code. No API key or registration. Export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML.

USPTO's official search API needs an API key, rate-limits you, and returns nested XML that is painful to parse. This reads the public patent search directly, filtered by query, assignee, inventor, country, and publication date, and returns each match in one flat row. You can pull US, EP, WO, CN, JP, KR, DE, FR, GB, CA, AU, and IN patents from a single run.

Who uses it	What they scrape USPTO for
Patent analysts	Which companies are filing in a technology area this quarter
IP lawyers	Prior art searches for a specific assignee or inventor
Market researchers	Patent filing trends by country and date range
Startup founders	Competitive patent landscape before building a product

What it does

This Actor collects patent records from the USPTO and other patent offices by search term, assignee, inventor, country, and date range, and returns each one as a flat row.

• 🔍 Keyword search: free-text query matches title and abstract, e.g. "battery" or "lithium ion".
• 🏢 Assignee filter: narrow to a company like "Apple Inc." or "Tesla".
• 👤 Inventor filter: find patents by a specific inventor name.
• 🌍 Country code: restrict to US, EP, WO, CN, JP, KR, DE, FR, GB, CA, AU, or IN.
• 📅 Date range: set publication after and before dates to limit results.
• 🔢 Max items: cap the number of patents per run, up to 1,000,000.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with USPTO data

📈 Track patent filing trends.

A market researcher runs the Actor with a keyword like "solid state battery" and a date range to see which companies are filing and when.

🔎 Prior art search.

An IP lawyer filters by assignee and inventor to find existing patents that could block a client's application.

🏢 Competitive intelligence.

A startup founder scrapes all patents assigned to a competitor to understand their technology roadmap.

🌍 Global landscape.

A patent analyst sets country to WO or EP to see international filings for a technology area.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	No registration or OAuth, run the Actor
Flat rows	Each patent is one row, ready for CSV or Excel
Multi-office	US, EP, WO, CN, JP, KR, DE, FR, GB, CA, AU, IN
Scalable	Up to 1,000,000 patents per run

How it compares

This Actor focuses on basic bibliographic patent data from the USPTO search, while the competitors below offer richer data like claims and citations from Google Patents.

Feature	ParseForge	Google Patents API	Google Patents Intelligence
Search by keyword	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filter by assignee	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filter by inventor	Yes	Yes	Yes
Filter by country code	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Filter by publication date	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
Patent claims	Not listed	Yes	Not listed
Patent citations	Not listed	Yes	Yes
AI patent summaries	Not listed	Yes	Not listed

Configure the run

Drive the Actor from a search term, assignee, inventor, country code, and publication date range, alone or together, and filters run as each patent is read so only matches reach your dataset. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10,
 "query": "battery"
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200,
 "query": "battery"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.021 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$2.10
1,000 results	$21.00
10,000 results	$210.00

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the USPTO Patents Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to USPTO through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/uspto-patents-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Your query or filters may be too narrow. Try a broader keyword, remove the assignee or inventor filter, or widen the date range. Also check the country code: if set to US, it will only return US patents.

Why are results from other countries showing up?

The country input defaults to US. If you want all countries, set it to Any (empty string). If you want a specific country, select it from the dropdown.

Why is the run slow?

Large maxItems values or broad queries can take time. Reduce maxItems or narrow your filters. The Actor processes patents one by one, so a million patents will take a while.

Why are some fields empty?

Not all patents have every field. For example, some may lack an assignee or inventor. That is normal and reflects the source data.

Can I get patent claims or citations?

No. This Actor returns only the basic bibliographic data. For claims, citations, or family graphs, use a different scraper like Google Patents API.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a USPTO API key?	No. This Actor reads the public patent search directly, so no API key or registration is required.
Which patent offices does it cover?	It can return patents from US, EP, WO, CN, JP, KR, DE, FR, GB, CA, AU, and IN. Set the country code input to filter.
What data do I get for each patent?	Each row includes the patent title, abstract, assignee, inventor, publication date, and country code. The exact fields are shown in the sample record.
Can I search by assignee or inventor?	Yes. Use the assignee and inventor inputs to filter results. You can combine them with a keyword query and date range.
How many patents can I scrape in one run?	Up to 1,000,000. Set the maxItems input to control the number.
What formats can I export to?	CSV, JSON, Excel, and XML. Choose the format when you run the Actor.
Does it include patent claims or citations?	No. This Actor returns the basic bibliographic data: title, abstract, assignee, inventor, publication date, and country code. For claims and citations, consider a different scraper.
Can I filter by publication date?	Yes. Use the after and before inputs with YYYY-MM-DD dates to set a range.
Is this the same as Google Patents?	No. This Actor reads the USPTO search directly. Google Patents is a separate source with different coverage and data.
What if I get no results?	Check your query and filters. Try a broader keyword or remove the assignee/inventor filter. See the troubleshooting section for more tips.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by United States Patent and Trademark Office. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.