riemannzeta/patent_mcp_server

An MCP server (Python SDK 2.x, MCPServer) for accessing United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) patent **and trademark** data through multiple APIs including the Patent Public Search API, the Open Data Portal (ODP) API, PTAB API v3, the TSDR trademark status API, and USPTO trademark search. Using this server, Claude Desktop can pull data from USPTO APIs, search through PTAB proceedings and decisions, research prosecution history, run trademark clearance searches, track trademark status, and more:
For an introduction to MCP servers see Introducing the Model Context Protocol.
Special thanks to Parker Hancock, author of the amazing Patent Client project, for blazing the trail to understanding of the string of requests and responses needed to pull data through the Public Search API.
Features
This server provides **42 tools** across six live USPTO data sources (23 more, for APIs USPTO has shut down, stay in the code behind ENABLE_LEGACY_TOOLS):
1. **Patent Search** - Full-text search of granted patents and published applications via PPUBS
2. **Full Text Documents** - Get the text of a patent by number, or just its claims, abstract or front page to save context
3. **PDF Downloads** - Download patents as PDF files (Claude Desktop doesn't support this as a client currently)
4. **Prosecution History** - Transactions, file-wrapper document lists filtered by type (office actions, responses, notices of allowance), and the documents themselves as plain text or PDF via ODP
5. **Office Action Search** - Search 19.9M office actions (2007 on) by examiner language, rejection statute, art unit and date, with counts by document code and statute
6. **Claim-Level Rejections and Citations** - Which claims each office action rejected, objected to or allowed and under which statute, with Alice/Mayo/Myriad/Bilski flags (2012 on), and the references each action cited, searchable in reverse to find every application whose examiner cited a given patent
7. **Petition Decisions** - Search 1.1M decisions on patent petitions (revival, reinstatement, make special, supervisory review) by text, type, outcome and office
8. **Patent Family Data** - Continuity information, foreign priority, and related applications
9. **Bulk Datasets** - Search and access USPTO bulk data products including PatentsView disambiguated data
10. **Forward Citations** - Find the later patents that cite a patent
11. **Trademark Search** - Full-text search of US federal trademarks by mark text, owner, goods/services, and class (clearance/knockout searches)
12. **Trademark Status & Documents** - Authoritative live status, prosecution documents, and mark images via TSDR
13. **Trademark Assignments** - Recorded ownership transfer records from 1955 to present (no API key needed)
It runs locally over stdio for Claude Desktop and Claude Code, or over HTTP as a shared, stateless service — see Remote hosting over HTTP.
> **Note on unavailable APIs:** The PatentsView API (search.patentsview.org) was shut down on March 20, 2026, with its data migrated to ODP bulk datasets. The Office Action and Enriched Citation APIs (developer.uspto.gov) were decommissioned in early 2026; office action search, rejections and citations have since returned on ODP (odp_search_office_actions, get_office_action_rejections, get_office_action_citations). The Patent Litigation API is not offered on the USPTO Open Data Portal; litigation data is available as a bulk download. The 23 affected tools stay in the code but are not registered by default, since their schemas cost every client about 6k tokens per session and they can only fail; set ENABLE_LEGACY_TOOLS=true to register them, and each returns workaround guidance pointing to a live tool.
API Sources
| Source | Description | Auth Required | Status |
|--------|-------------|---------------|--------|
| **ppubs.uspto.gov** | Full text documents, PDF downloads, advanced search (daily updates) | No | Active |
| **api.uspto.gov (ODP)** | Metadata, continuity, transactions, assignments, prosecution history | Yes (ODP API Key) | Active |
| **PTAB Trial API** | IPR/PGR/CBM proceedings, decisions, appeals | Yes (ODP API Key) | Active (ODP v3.0) |
| **tsdrapi.uspto.gov (TSDR)** | Trademark status, prosecution documents, mark images | Yes (TSDR API Key — separate from ODP) | Active |
| **tmsearch.uspto.gov** | Full-text trademark search (internal API behind the TESS replacement) | No | Active (unofficial) |
| **assignmentcenter.uspto.gov** | Trademark ownership transfer records (1955-present) | No | Active |