USPTO Has a Free Patent API — Search 8M+ Patents (No Key Required)

Did you know you can search every US patent since 1976 with a free API call? I didn't — until I needed to check if my idea was already patented. The API USPTO's PatentsView API is completely free. No API key, no registration. import requests def search_patents(query, limit=5): resp = requests.post('https://api.patentsview.org/patents/query', json={ 'q': {'_text_any': {'patent_abstract': query}}, 'f': ['patent_number', 'patent_title', 'patent_date', 'assignee_organization', 'patent_abstract'], 'o': {'per_page': limit}, 's': [{'patent_date': 'desc'}] }) return resp.json().get('patents', []) # What AI patents were filed recently? patents = search_patents('artificial intelligence medical diagnosis') for p in patents: company = p.get('assignees', [{}])[0].get('assignee_organization', 'Individual') print(f"[{p['patent_number']}] {p['patent_title']}") print(f" {p['patent_date']} | {company}\n") Real Use Cases 1. Check Before You Build Before spending months on a product, check if someone alre