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pypatent

pypatent is a tiny Python package to easily search for and scrape US Patent and Trademark Office Patent Data.

PyPI page

New in version 1.2

This version implements Selenium support for scraping. Previous versions were using the requests library for all requests, however this has had problems with the USPTO site lately. I notice some users have been able to use requests without issue, while others get 4xx errors.

PyPatent Version 1.2 implements an optional new WebConnection object to give the user the option to use Selenium WebDrivers in place of the requests library. This WebConnection object is optional. If used, it should be passed as an argument when initializing Search or Patent objects.

Use it in the following cases:

  • When you want to use Selenium instead of requests
  • When you want to use requests but with a custom user-agent or headers

See bottom of README for examples.

Requirements

Python 3, BeautifulSoup, requests, pandas, re, selenium

Installation

pip install pypatent

If using Selenium for scraping (introduced in version 1.2), be sure to install a Selenium WebDriver. For Chrome, use chromedriver. For Firefox, use geckodriver. See the Selenium download page for more details and options.

Searching for patents

The Search object works similarly to the Advanced Search at the USPTO, with additional options.

Specifying patent criteria for your search

There are two methods to specify your search criteria, and you can use one or both.

Search Method 1: Using a custom string

You may search for a certain string in all fields of the patent:

pypatent.Search('microsoft') # Will return results matching 'microsoft' in any field

You may also specify complex search criteria as demonstrated on the USPTO site:

pypatent.Search('TTL/(tennis AND (racquet OR racket))')

Search Method 2: Specify USPTO search fields (see Field Codes below)

Alternatively, you can specify one or more Field Code arguments to search within the specified fields. Multiple Field Code arguments will create a search with AND logic. OR logic can be used within a single argument. For more complex logic, use a custom string.

pypatent.Search(pn='adobe', ttl='software') # Equivalent to search('PN/adobe AND TTL/software')
pypatent.Search(pn=('adobe or macromedia'), ttl='software') # Equivalent to search('PN/(adobe or macromedia) AND TTL/software')

Combining search methods 1 and 2

String criteria can be used in conjunction with Field Code arguments:

pypatent.Search('acrobat', pn='adobe', ttl='software') # Equivalent to search('acrobat AND PN/adobe AND TTL/software')

The Field Code arguments have the same meaning as on the USPTO site.

Additional search options

Limit the number of results

The results_limit argument lets you change how many patent results are retrieved. The default is 50, equivalent to one page of results.

pypatent.Search('microsoft', results_limit=10) # Fetch 10 results only

Specify whether to fetch details for each patent

By default, pypatent retrieves the details of every patent by visiting each patent's URL from the search results. This can take a long time since each page has to be scraped. If you just need the patent titles and URLs from the search results, set get_patent_details to False:

pypatent.Search('microsoft', get_patent_details=False) # Fetch patent numbers and titles only

Formatting your search results

pypatent has convenience methods to format the Search object into either a Pandas DataFrame or list of dicts.

Format as Pandas DataFrame:

pypatent.Search('microsoft').as_dataframe()

Format as list of dicts:

pypatent.Search('microsoft', get_patent_details=False).as_list()

Sample result (without patent details):

[{
     'title': 'Electronic device',
      'url': 'http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=1&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=microsoft&OS=microsoft&RS=microsoft'
 },
 
 {'title': 'Portable electric device', ... }

The Patent class

The Search class uses the Patent class to retrieve and store patent details for a given patent URL. You can use it directly if you already know the patent URL (e.g. you ran a Search with get_patent_details=False)

# Create a Patent object
this_patent = pypatent.Patent(title='Base station device, first location management device, terminal device, communication control method, and communication system',
                              url='http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-adv.htm&r=4&p=1&f=G&l=50&d=PTXT&S1=aaa&OS=aaa&RS=aaa')

# Fetch the details
this_patent.fetch_details()

Patent Attributes Retrieved:

Note, not all fields from the patent page are scraped. I hope to add more, and pull requests are appreciated :)

  • patent_num: Patent Number
  • patent_date: Issue Date
  • abstract: Abstract
  • inventors: List of Names of Inventors and Their Locations
  • applicant_name: Applicant Name
  • applicant_city: Applicant City
  • applicant_state: Applicant State
  • applicant_country: Applicant Country
  • assignee_name: Assignee Name
  • assignee_loc: Assignee Location
  • family_id: Family ID
  • applicant_num: Applicant Number
  • file_date: Filing date
  • claims: Claims Description (as a list)
  • description: Patent Description (as a list)

Field Code Arguments for Search Function

  • PN: Patent Number
  • ISD: Issue Date
  • TTL: Title
  • ABST: Abstract
  • ACLM: Claim(s)
  • SPEC: Description/Specification
  • CCL: Current US Classification
  • CPC: Current CPC Classification
  • CPCL: Current CPC Classification Class
  • ICL: International Classification
  • APN: Application Serial Number
  • APD: Application Date
  • APT: Application Type
  • GOVT: Government Interest
  • FMID: Patent Family ID
  • PARN: Parent Case Information
  • RLAP: Related US App. Data
  • RLFD: Related Application Filing Date
  • PRIR: Foreign Priority
  • PRAD: Priority Filing Date
  • PCT: PCT Information
  • PTAD: PCT Filing Date
  • PT3D: PCT 371 Date
  • PPPD: Prior Published Document Date
  • REIS: Reissue Data
  • RPAF Reissued Patent Application Filing Date
  • AFFF: 130(b) Affirmation Flag
  • AFFT: 130(b) Affirmation Statement
  • IN: Inventor Name
  • IC: Inventor City
  • IS: Inventor State
  • ICN: Inventor Country
  • AANM: Applicant Name
  • AACI: Applicant City
  • AAST: Applicant State
  • AACO: Applicant Country
  • AAAT: Applicant Type
  • LREP: Attorney or agent
  • AN: Assignee Name
  • AC: Assignee City
  • AS: Assignee State
  • ACN: Assignee Country
  • EXP: Primary Examiner
  • EXA: Assistant Examiner
  • REF: Referenced By
  • FREF: Foreign References
  • OREF: Other References
  • COFC: Certificate of Correction
  • REEX: Re-Examination Certificate
  • PTAB: PTAB Trial Certificate
  • SEC: Supplemental Exam Certificate
  • ILRN: International Registration Number
  • ILRD: International Registration Date
  • ILPD: International Registration Publication Date
  • ILFD: Hague International Filing Date

Changelog

New in version 1.2

This version implements Selenium support for scraping. Previous versions were using the requests library for all requests, however the USPTO site has been causing problems for it. I notice some users have been able to use requests without issue, while others get 4xx errors.

PyPatent Version 1.2 implements a new WebConnection object to give the user the option to use Selenium WebDrivers in place of the requests library. This WebConnection object is optional. If used, it should be passed as an argument when initializing Search or Patent objects. Use it in the following cases:

  • When you want to use Selenium instead of requests
  • When you want to use requests but with a custom user-agent or headers

An example using the Firefox WebDriver:

import pypatent
from selenium import webdriver

driver = webdriver.Firefox()  # Requires geckodriver in your PATH

conn = pypatent.WebConnection(use_selenium=True, selenium_driver=driver)

res = pypatent.Search('microsoft', get_patent_details=True, web_connection=conn)

print(res)

An example using the requests library with a custom user agent:

import pypatent

conn = pypatent.WebConnection(use_selenium=False, user_agent='Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64) AppleWebKit/537.36 (KHTML, like Gecko) Chrome/70.0.3538.77 Safari/537.36')

res = pypatent.Search('microsoft', get_patent_details=True, web_connection=conn)

print(res)

An example using the requests library with default user agent (WebConnection is not necessary here as we are using the defaults)

import pypatent

res = pypatent.Search('microsoft', get_patent_details=True)

print(res)

New in version 1.1:

This version makes searching and storing patent data easier:

  • Simplified to 2 objects: Search and Patent
  • A Search object searches the USPTO site and can output the results as a DataFrame or list. It can scrape the details of each patent, or just get the patent title and URL. Most users will only need to use this object.
  • A Patent object fetches and holds a single patent's info. Fetching the patent's details is now optional. This object should only be used when you already have the patent URL and aren't conducting a search.