Google Patents
Search patents, pull claims and full text, and download PDFs for IP risk and competitive landscape checks before you commit to a build.
Overview
Google-patents is an agent skill most often used in Idea (also Validate) that searches Google Patents via SerpApi for IP research, claims review, and competitive patent analysis.
Install
npx skills add https://github.com/skills.volces.com --skill google-patentsWhat is this skill?
- Five bash commands: search, detail, fulltext, full, and pdf download
- Supports multi-country patent IDs including US, CN, EP, JP, KR, WO, and DE
- Search filters for assignee, inventor, status, type, date range, and language
- One-shot full retrieval plus dedicated claims and description fulltext paths
- Requires SERPAPI_API_KEY (documented free tier: 100 searches/month at serpapi.com)
- 5 documented shell commands (search, detail, fulltext, full, pdf)
- SerpApi free tier noted as 100 requests/month in SKILL.md
Adoption & trust: 2 installs on skills.sh; trending (+200% hot-view momentum).
What problem does it solve?
You are unsure whether your product idea sits on patented ground or which incumbents already filed in your technical niche.
Who is it for?
Solo founders doing preliminary patent landscaping, competitor IP scans, and infringement sanity checks before prototyping.
Skip if: Substituting qualified legal opinion for regulated medical, hardware, or enterprise deals where formal FTO memos are mandatory.
When should I use this skill?
User mentions patents, 专利, infringement, FTO, IP analysis, patent search, claims, assignees, or wants patent PDFs and full descriptions.
What do I get? / Deliverables
You retrieve structured patent metadata, claims, full descriptions, and PDFs so you can adjust scope, pursue design-around, or escalate to professional FTO review.
- Patent search result sets
- Claims and description extracts
- Downloaded patent PDF files
Recommended Skills
Journey fit
Spans multiple journey phases - primary shelf plus alternate fits below.
Patent and FTO questions surface earliest in Idea when evaluating whether a concept is crowded or legally risky. Research subphase holds discovery skills that gather external evidence—here via Google Patents and SerpApi—not implementation work.
Where it fits
Keyword-search granted patents in your category and compare top assignees before picking a MVP angle.
Pull detail and claims for a rival’s core patent family to see what UX or API patterns are already claimed.
Run fulltext on relevant publications to decide whether to cut a feature or plan a design-around for v1.
Check design patents and portfolio density around premium industrial design before pricing a physical accessory SKU.
How it compares
CLI patent research via SerpApi, not general web search or trademark-only clearance workflows.
Common Questions / FAQ
Who is google-patents for?
Solo and indie builders researching patents, assignees, and claims when evaluating SaaS, hardware-adjacent, or design-heavy ideas.
When should I use google-patents?
Use it in Idea during market and IP discovery, in Validate when narrowing scope around known patents, and before Ship/Launch when a feature’s claims overlap keeps blocking distribution plans.
Is google-patents safe to install?
It calls SerpApi with your API key over the network; store keys safely and review the Security Audits panel on this Prism page before installing in shared repos.
SKILL.md
READMESKILL.md - Google Patents
# Google Patents 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 ``` --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