USPTO

USPTO Patent File Wrapper API

Core USPTO Open Data Portal (ODP) API for searching and retrieving U.S. patent application file wrappers — bibliographic data, assignment history, prosecution documents (office actions, responses, claims, drawings), continuity, foreign priority, attorney/agent info, and patent term adjustments. Replaces the legacy Patent Examination Data System (PEDS) and Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR). Requires an ODP API key. Data covers all publicly available U.S. patent applications from Patent Center.

USPTO Patent File Wrapper API is one of 6 APIs that USPTO publishes on the APIs.io network, described by a machine-readable OpenAPI specification.

This API exposes 1 machine-runnable capability that can be deployed as REST, MCP, or Agent Skill surfaces via Naftiko and 1 JSON Schema definition.

Tagged areas include Patents, File Wrapper, Government, Intellectual Property, and Open Data. The published artifact set on APIs.io includes API documentation, an OpenAPI specification, a JSON-LD context, 1 Naftiko capability spec, and 1 JSON Schema.

Documentation GitHub OpenAPI

OpenAPI Specification

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: USPTO Patent File Wrapper API
  version: '1.0'
  description: |
    USPTO Open Data Portal (ODP) Patent File Wrapper API. Search and retrieve U.S. patent
    application file wrappers including bibliographic data, assignment history, prosecution
    documents (office actions, responses, claims, drawings), continuity, foreign priority,
    attorney/agent info, and patent term adjustments. Requires an ODP API key.
  contact:
    name: USPTO API Help
    email: [email protected]
    url: https://data.uspto.gov/apis/getting-started
  license:
    name: U.S. Government Work
    url: https://www.usa.gov/government-works
servers:
- url: https://api.uspto.gov
  description: USPTO Open Data Portal
security:
- ApiKeyAuth: []
tags:
- name: Search
  description: Search patent applications
- name: Application
  description: Retrieve patent application data
- name: Documents
  description: Retrieve patent application documents
- name: Assignments
  description: Retrieve assignment records
paths:
  /api/v1/patent/applications/search:
    get:
      tags: [Search]
      summary: Search Patent Applications
      operationId: searchPatentApplications
      parameters:
      - name: q
        in: query
        description: Search query (Lucene-style).
        schema: {type: string}
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: query
        schema: {type: string}
      - name: patentNumber
        in: query
        schema: {type: string}
      - name: filingDateFrom
        in: query
        schema: {type: string, format: date}
      - name: filingDateTo
        in: query
        schema: {type: string, format: date}
      - name: offset
        in: query
        schema: {type: integer, default: 0}
      - name: limit
        in: query
        schema: {type: integer, default: 25, maximum: 100}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentApplicationSearchResponse'}
        '401': {$ref: '#/components/responses/Unauthorized'}
        '429': {$ref: '#/components/responses/RateLimited'}
    post:
      tags: [Search]
      summary: Search Patent Applications With Body
      operationId: searchPatentApplicationsPost
      requestBody:
        required: true
        content:
          application/json:
            schema: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentSearchRequest'}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Search results
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentApplicationSearchResponse'}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Patent Application
      operationId: getPatentApplication
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Patent application file wrapper.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentApplication'}
        '404': {$ref: '#/components/responses/NotFound'}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/meta-data:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Patent Application Metadata
      operationId: getPatentApplicationMetadata
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Application metadata.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentApplication'}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/adjustment:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Patent Term Adjustment
      operationId: getPatentTermAdjustment
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Patent term adjustment data.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: object}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/assignment:
    get:
      tags: [Assignments]
      summary: Get Patent Assignments
      operationId: getPatentAssignments
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Assignment history for the application.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Assignment'}}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/attorney:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Application Attorney/Agent
      operationId: getApplicationAttorney
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Attorney/agent information.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: object}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/continuity:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Application Continuity
      operationId: getApplicationContinuity
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Parent/child continuity relationships.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: object}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/foreign-priority:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Application Foreign Priority
      operationId: getApplicationForeignPriority
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Foreign priority claims.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: object}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/transactions:
    get:
      tags: [Application]
      summary: Get Application Transactions
      operationId: getApplicationTransactions
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Prosecution transaction history.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: object}
  /api/v1/patent/applications/{applicationNumberText}/documents:
    get:
      tags: [Documents]
      summary: List Application Documents
      operationId: listApplicationDocuments
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: List of documents in the file wrapper.
          content:
            application/json:
              schema: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Document'}}
  /api/v1/download/applications/{applicationNumberText}/{documentId}.pdf:
    get:
      tags: [Documents]
      summary: Download Application Document PDF
      operationId: downloadApplicationDocumentPdf
      parameters:
      - name: applicationNumberText
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      - name: documentId
        in: path
        required: true
        schema: {type: string}
      responses:
        '200':
          description: PDF binary.
          content:
            application/pdf:
              schema: {type: string, format: binary}
components:
  securitySchemes:
    ApiKeyAuth:
      type: apiKey
      in: header
      name: X-API-KEY
  responses:
    Unauthorized:
      description: Missing or invalid API key.
    NotFound:
      description: Resource not found.
    RateLimited:
      description: Rate limit exceeded.
  schemas:
    PatentSearchRequest:
      type: object
      properties:
        q: {type: string}
        filters: {type: object, additionalProperties: true}
        sort: {type: array, items: {type: string}}
        offset: {type: integer}
        limit: {type: integer}
    PatentApplicationSearchResponse:
      type: object
      properties:
        count: {type: integer}
        offset: {type: integer}
        limit: {type: integer}
        patentBag:
          type: array
          items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/PatentApplication'}
    PatentApplication:
      type: object
      properties:
        applicationNumberText: {type: string}
        patentNumber: {type: string}
        filingDate: {type: string, format: date}
        grantDate: {type: string, format: date}
        publicationDate: {type: string, format: date}
        publicationNumber: {type: string}
        applicationTypeCategory: {type: string}
        applicationStatusCode: {type: string}
        applicationStatusDescriptionText: {type: string}
        applicationStatusDate: {type: string, format: date}
        inventionTitle: {type: string}
        firstInventorToFileIndicator: {type: string}
        examinerNameText: {type: string}
        groupArtUnitNumber: {type: string}
        classSubclass: {type: string}
        cpcClassificationBag: {type: array, items: {type: string}}
        applicantBag: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Party'}}
        inventorBag: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Party'}}
        correspondenceAddressBag: {type: array, items: {type: object}}
    Party:
      type: object
      properties:
        firstName: {type: string}
        lastName: {type: string}
        nameLineOneText: {type: string}
        country: {type: string}
        cityName: {type: string}
        geographicRegionName: {type: string}
    Document:
      type: object
      properties:
        documentIdentifier: {type: string}
        documentCode: {type: string}
        documentCodeDescriptionText: {type: string}
        officialDate: {type: string, format: date}
        pageTotalQuantity: {type: integer}
        directionCategory: {type: string}
        downloadOptionBag:
          type: array
          items:
            type: object
            properties:
              mimeTypeIdentifier: {type: string}
              downloadUrl: {type: string, format: uri}
    Assignment:
      type: object
      properties:
        reelNumber: {type: string}
        frameNumber: {type: string}
        recordedDate: {type: string, format: date}
        executionDate: {type: string, format: date}
        conveyanceText: {type: string}
        assignorBag: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Party'}}
        assigneeBag: {type: array, items: {$ref: '#/components/schemas/Party'}}

USPTO Patent File Wrapper API

Documentation

Specifications

Schemas & Data

Other Resources

OpenAPI Specification