Google Patents

Search Google Patents database for patent research, infringement risk checks, and competitive IP analysis. Use when user mentions: 专利, patent, 侵权, infringement, 知识产权, IP, 外观设计, design patent, 专利检索, patent search, 专利风险, patent risk, 专利分析, patent analysis, 专利布局, patent portfolio, 有没有专利, 会不会侵权, 能不能卖, FTO, freedom to operate, 规避设计, 专利壁垒, 技术壁垒, 权利要求, claims, 专利详情, 发明人, inventor, 受让人, assignee, 专利号, patent number, 说明书, description, 技术领域, 背景技术, 发明内容, 具体实施方式, PDF

Search and retrieve patent data via SerpApi. Requires SERPAPI_API_KEY env var (free: 100/month at serpapi.com).

5 Commands

bash

bash scripts/patents.sh search "keywords" [options]     # Search patents
bash scripts/patents.sh detail "US11734097B1"            # Basic info + claims
bash scripts/patents.sh fulltext "US11734097B1"          # Description full text
bash scripts/patents.sh full "US11734097B1"              # ALL data in one call
bash scripts/patents.sh pdf "US11734097B1" output.pdf    # Download PDF

Patent ID: short US11734097B1 or full patent/US11734097B1/en. Supports all countries: CN, US, EP, JP, KR, WO, DE, etc.

Search Options

text

--country US,CN,JP,WO,EP,KR    --status GRANT|APPLICATION
--type PATENT|DESIGN            --assignee "Company"
--inventor "Name"               --sort relevance|new|old
--after publication:20230101    --before publication:20251231
--num 10-100                    --page N
--language ENGLISH|CHINESE      --litigation YES|NO
--scholar                       --clustered

Boolean: "(massage) AND (glove OR mitt)" | Multi-term + CPC: "(pet grooming);(A01K13)"

What Each Command Returns

search: patent_id, title, snippet, assignee, inventor, dates, pdf, country_status detail: title, abstract, claims[], inventors[], assignees[], classifications[], legal_events[], citations, similar_documents[], images[], pdf, family_id, worldwide_applications fulltext: description full text (FIELD OF INVENTION, BACKGROUND, SUMMARY, DETAILED DESCRIPTION) full: Everything from detail + description_full combined pdf: Downloads PDF file to specified path

E-commerce Scenarios

bash

# Infringement risk check (pre-listing must-do)
bash scripts/patents.sh search "product" --type DESIGN --country US --status GRANT

# Competitor patents
bash scripts/patents.sh search "category" --assignee "Company" --num 50

# Read claims to assess real risk
bash scripts/patents.sh full "USD975937S1"

# Download patent PDF for reference
bash scripts/patents.sh pdf "USD975937S1" ./patent.pdf

# Expired patents (free to use)
bash scripts/patents.sh search "tech" --before "filing:20040101"

# Latest trends
bash scripts/patents.sh search "tech" --sort new --after "publication:20240101"

# Litigation-prone patents
bash scripts/patents.sh search "product" --litigation YES --country US

Error Handling

All errors return JSON with error and code fields. No exceptions thrown.

Code	Meaning
PATENT_NOT_FOUND	Patent ID doesn't exist (404)
AUTH_ERROR	Invalid/expired API key (401/403)
MAX_RETRIES_EXCEEDED	Network failure after 3 retries
NO_DESCRIPTION	Patent has no description text
PARSE_ERROR	HTML parsing failed
NO_PDF	No PDF available
DOWNLOAD_ERROR	PDF download failed
MISSING_QUERY	No search query provided
MISSING_ID	No patent ID provided

Auto-retry: 3 attempts with exponential backoff (2s, 4s, 8s) on 429/5xx errors. Rate limit: 1 second between requests to avoid triggering anti-scraping. Timeouts: 10s connect, 30s max per request, 60s for PDF downloads.

FAQ

Q: Why are some fields empty? A: Different countries have different patent page formats. Some patents may have incomplete data, or the description may not be digitized.

Q: Can I batch-fetch patents? A: Yes, loop through IDs. Respect the 1s rate limit. Free tier = 100 calls/month. Cached results (same query within 1h) are free.

Q: How to get PDF? A: bash scripts/patents.sh pdf "US11734097B1" output.pdf

Q: Chinese vs English patents? A: Chinese pages (patent/CNxxxxxx/zh) have native Chinese content. English pages have machine-translated content. Use --language CHINESE for search.

Q: Patent ID formats? A: Country code + number + type suffix. Examples: CN106484775A, US20180232442A1, EP2264377A2, USD975937S1 (design), JP2020123456A.