@pipeworx/patents

Connect: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/patents/mcp · Install: one-click buttons

Tools: 3

The US Patent and Trademark Office’s patent database via the PatentsView API. Search and retrieve granted US patents (and published applications) by keyword, assignee, inventor, or patent number. ~12 million issued patents going back to 1976. Free, no auth.

Why this matters for AI agents

Patents are the public record of what’s been invented and who claims to have invented it. For competitive intelligence, IP due diligence, freedom-to-operate research, or technology landscaping, the USPTO is the source. The data is structured: claims, citations, family members, prosecution history, assignment changes.

Two core flows:

1. Keyword search. “What patents exist for CRISPR gene editing?” → search_patents({query: "CRISPR gene editing"}) → top patents by relevance with title, abstract, assignee, filing date, patent number.

2. Specific patent. “What’s in patent US 10,123,456?” → get_patent({number: "US10123456"}) → full record: claims, citations, family, current owner.

For company-level IP due diligence (combining patents with SEC IP risk disclosures and trademarks), see the Patent Due Diligence recipe.

Citable URI

pipeworx://uspto/patent/{number}

Patent numbers are stable forever. Embed in agent output as the canonical citation.

What “patents” includes

The default search returns utility patents. For design or plant patents, filter by type in results.

Update cadence

• New patents publish on Tuesdays (USPTO’s grant-day cadence).
• New applications publish on Thursdays.
• Pipeworx caches results with 24-hour TTL — fine for almost all use cases. For Tuesday-morning fresh-grant news, set Cache-Control: no-cache.

Common pitfalls

• Keyword search ≠ freedom-to-operate. search_patents finds patents whose text mentions your terms. It does not tell you whether a patent CLAIMS what you’d be doing. FTO requires reading claims carefully — Pipeworx returns them, but interpretation needs a patent attorney.
• Assignee normalization. “Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc.”, “VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS, INC.”, “Vertex Pharmaceuticals” — all the same company. Group case-insensitive after stripping legal suffixes when aggregating.
• Citation density signal. Most-cited patents within a search result are usually the foundational ones. Their citation count is in the patent record — sort by it for “what are the canonical patents in this area.”
• Foreign filings absent. USPTO is US-only. For European, Japanese, or Chinese patents, you need EPO, JPO, or CNIPA — not currently in Pipeworx. File via pipeworx_feedback if you need them.
• Application vs. issued. “Patent pending” applications are searchable but the date you care about is grant_date, not filing_date. Applications can be rejected or amended; the issued patent is what matters.
• Patent family. Most patents have foreign counterparts (the “family”). The full record lists family members. For a complete picture of a single invention’s protection, look at the family across all jurisdictions.

Tools

• search_patents — Search US patents by keyword in abstracts. Returns patent number, title, filing date, inventors, and assignee organization.
• get_patent — Get full patent details by patent number (e.g., “5123456”). Returns title, abstract, filing date, patent type, inventors, and assignee.
• search_inventors — Search patent inventors by last name. Returns inventor name, location, and associated patent numbers.