Learn About Patents Around the World

 
 
 
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What is PatentsView

PatentsView is an award-winning visualization, data dissemination, and analysis platform that focuses on intellectual property (IP) data. Support for the site and the team that works on it comes from the Office of the Chief Economist at the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO). PatentsView serves students, educators, researchers, policymakers, small business owners, and the public. It offers a unique and valuable open data platform providing free data dissemination and value-added analyses to foster better knowledge of the IP system and drive new insights into invention and innovation. 

PatentsView began in 2012 as a team project with the USPTO, American Institutes for Research (AIR), University of Massachusetts Amherst, New York University, University of California, Berkeley, Twin Arch Technologies, and Periscopic. The beta version was released to the public in December 2015, and the full website was launched in January 2017. PatentsView’s user community is growing over time. In 2019, the platform attracted an average of more than 77,000 Application Program Interface (API) queries per day, 167 hits per day to the visualization and search interfaces, and a substantial number of direct data set downloads. 

Since its inception, the collaborators have developed and deployed several web-based tools and databases. These products include: 

  1. Patent Visualizations

    A collection of charts and graphs to access and explore patent data in an accessible format. The visualization tools allow the user to search for keywords, filter by location, make comparisons by attribute, and view a network of patents that shows a big picture. 

  1. Community Collaborative

    A moderated community that offers collaborative spaces, such as a discussion forum and the Data in Action Spotlight. The Data in Action Spotlight is a blog featuring information about research done with PatentsView data and tools, updates to the PatentsView site, relevant events, and more.

  1. API Tool

    The API tool allows software developers and researchers to work with our data within their local environment. Documentation is available on the ‘Why Explore Patent Data?’ page for the API tool as well as its query language and a list of specialized endpoints to search and filter the data. For a detailed example in Python, view our PatentsView Search API Tutorial on GitHub. We recently updated it with more robust descriptions and documentation.

  1. Data Query Builder

    A user-friendly query builder interface to allow users to create their own datasets based on specific search criteria. The query builder is distinct from the API Tool. The final dataset from any customized query is made available by providing a link sent to the user's email address. NOTE: The Query Builder tool is currently down and unable to send requested data to your email address. Until it is back online, please refer to our service desk to inquire about customized data requests.

  1. Bulk Data Download

    A page that provides the data used to create the website and its visualizations. It is split into various tables that contain raw, disambiguated, or processed data. The page also provides example Python and R scripts meant to assist with reading the data after they have downloaded.