IP Research

IP Research

Async Python clients for patent and IP data. All clients use async with context managers. All shared scaffolding (HTTP, cache, retry, errors) lives in mcp_data_core, provided by the separate mcp-data-core package.

Routing

Quick Examples

Lookup patent by number

from patent_client_agents.google_patents import GooglePatentsClient

async with GooglePatentsClient() as client:
    patent = await client.get_patent_data("US10123456B2")

Search USPTO applications

from patent_client_agents.uspto_odp import ApplicationsClient

async with ApplicationsClient() as client:  # Requires USPTO_ODP_API_KEY
    results = await client.search(query="inventionTitle:laser", limit=25)
    for record in results.applicationBag:
        print(record.applicationNumberText, record.filingDate)

Find PTAB proceedings

from patent_client_agents.uspto_odp import PtabTrialsClient

async with PtabTrialsClient() as client:
    proceedings = await client.search_proceedings(query="patent:US10123456")

Look up MPEP section

from patent_client_agents.mpep import SearchInput, search

response = await search(SearchInput(query="obviousness rejection", per_page=10))
for hit in response.hits:
    print(hit.section_id, hit.title)

Check trademark status (TSDR)

from patent_client_agents.uspto_tsdr import TsdrClient

async with TsdrClient() as client:  # Requires USPTO_TSDR_API_KEY
    status = await client.get_status("97123456")
    print(status.mark_text, status.status_description)

Look up TMEP section

from patent_client_agents.tmep import get_section

section = await get_section("1207.01(a)")
print(section.title)

Resolve a CPC symbol

from patent_client_agents.cpc import retrieve_cpc

entry = await retrieve_cpc(symbol="H04L63/08", ancestors=True)

Search Canadian IP case law (CanLII)

from patent_client_agents.canlii import BrowseCasesInput, browse_cases

# 20 most recent Federal Court IP decisions
recent = await browse_cases(BrowseCasesInput(
    database_id="fct",
    result_count=20,
    decision_date_after="2024-01-01",
))

Search Canadian Federal Court patent dockets

from patent_client_agents.canada_federal_court import CanadaFederalCourtClient

async with CanadaFederalCourtClient() as client:
    cases = await client.search_party_cases("Pfizer", patent_only=True)
    docket = await client.list_docket_entries(cases.cases[0].court_number)

The Court does not publish an official open/closed field. Treat likely_pending / likely_closed as conservative docket-text inferences and unknown as unresolved, not as evidence that no case is pending.

Monitor China SPC IP Court hearings

from patent_client_agents.china_spc_ip_court import ChinaSpcIpCourtClient

async with ChinaSpcIpCourtClient() as client:
    index = await client.list_hearing_index(page=1)
    notice = await client.get_hearing_notice(index.notices[0].notice_id)
    chip_material = await client.search_site("芯片")

Hearing notices are pending-hearing signals, not complete dockets. They often omit case and patent numbers, and the official site may be unreachable from some foreign DNS or cloud-egress environments.

Fetch a global IP statute via WIPO Lex

from patent_client_agents.wipo_lex import (
    SearchLegislationInput, SubjectMatter, search_legislation, get_legislation,
)

# Find Canadian patent statutes, then pull the Patent Act detail with PDFs
hits = await search_legislation(SearchLegislationInput(
    country_codes=["CA"], subject_matter=[SubjectMatter.PATENTS],
))
detail = await get_legislation(hits.hits[0].legislation_id)

Error Handling

All clients raise typed exceptions from mcp_data_core.exceptions. ApiError and its subclasses include a path to the log file in their string representation so agents can inspect stacktraces without keeping them in context.

from mcp_data_core.exceptions import (
    McpDataCoreError,
    NotFoundError,
    RateLimitError,
)

try:
    async with GooglePatentsClient() as client:
        patent = await client.get_patent_data("US99999999")
except NotFoundError as e:
    print(e)  # "... (HTTP 404, details: ~/.cache/patent_client_agents/patent_client_agents.log)"
except RateLimitError as e:
    if e.retry_after:
        await asyncio.sleep(e.retry_after)
except McpDataCoreError as e:
    print(e)  # Fallback for any other typed error

Exception hierarchy (from mcp_data_core.exceptions):

Log file: ~/.cache/patent_client_agents/patent_client_agents.log — full tracebacks, request/response details, debug info. Read this when concise error messages aren't enough.

Environment Variables

USPTO Publications, USPTO Assignments, USPTO Trademark Assignments, Google Patents, MPEP, TMEP, Canada Federal Court case files, China SPC IP Court hearing notices, Japan IP High Court patent and utility-model case lists, and WIPO Lex require no API key.

Cache Management

All clients cache HTTP responses to ~/.cache/patent_client_agents/ using hishel with a SQLite backend and WAL pragmas. See cache.md for TTL, invalidation, and statistics APIs.

Issue Reporting

Source: parkerhancock/patent-client-agents

Report bugs with version, minimal reproduction code, and relevant API response if applicable.

References

• google_patents.md — Full-text search, patent documents, citations
• uspto_odp.md — Applications, PTAB, bulk data, petitions
• uspto_applications.md — High-level applications API
• uspto_petitions.md — Petition decisions
• uspto_bulkdata.md — Bulk data product catalog
• uspto_office_actions.md — Office action analytics
• uspto_assignments.md — Patent assignment/ownership lookup
• uspto_publications.md — PPUBS full-text
• uspto_tsdr.md — Trademark Status & Document Retrieval
• uspto_trademark_assignments.md — Trademark ownership transfers
• epo_ops.md — EPO bibliographic, family, legal status
• jpo.md — Japan Patent Office
• japan-ip-high-court.md — Japan IP High Court pending and closed patent and utility-model case lists
• mpep.md — Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
• tmep.md — Trademark Manual of Examining Procedure
• cpc.md — CPC classification lookup
• cache.md — Cache management