Developer API
The PatentBrief API
Pull plain-English patent data — summaries, what-it-covers breakdowns, holders, inventors, dates, and citations — straight into your app, research, or AI pipeline. Structured JSON, free public endpoints, no key required.
Example response
One patent, fully structured
Append /json to any patent URL to get a typed, linked record. Below is the response for the RSA patent. Factual fields are real; editorial fields illustrate the shape.
{
"patent_number": "US 4405829",
"country": "US",
"title": "The RSA public-key encryption method",
"original_title": "Cryptographic communications system and method",
"summary": "A method for secure communication that uses a public key to encrypt a message and a separate private key to decrypt it, relying on the difficulty of factoring very large numbers.",
"what_it_does": "Lets two parties exchange encrypted messages without sharing a secret key in advance, by giving each user a public key to receive messages and a private key to decrypt them.",
"what_it_does_not_cover": [
"Symmetric encryption that uses a single shared key",
"The underlying mathematics of factoring itself",
"Any particular key length or implementation parameters"
],
"filed": "1977-12-14",
"granted": "1983-09-20",
"expires": "2000-09-20",
"status": "public domain",
"holder": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
"holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/massachusetts-institute-of-technology",
"inventors": [
{ "name": "Ronald L. Rivest", "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/ronald-l-rivest" },
{ "name": "Adi Shamir", "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/adi-shamir" },
{ "name": "Leonard M. Adleman", "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/leonard-m-adleman" }
],
"times_cited": 450,
"tags": ["cryptography", "computer security", "telecommunications"],
"abstract": "A cryptographic communications system and method that encodes a digital message…",
"url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/4405829/rsa-encryption",
"markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/4405829/rsa-encryption/md",
"google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US4405829"
}Or the whole index at once
One call returns every explained patent as an array of records. Also available as /patents.jsonl (streamable) and /patents.csv.
{
"name": "PatentBrief Landmark Patent Index",
"url": "https://patentbrief.org/patents",
"license": "https://patentbrief.org/terms",
"count": 360,
"records": [
{
"patent_number": "4405829",
"country": "US",
"title": "The RSA public-key encryption method",
"assignee": "Massachusetts Institute of Technology",
"grant_year": 1983,
"times_cited": 450,
"status": "public domain",
"url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/4405829/rsa-encryption"
}
]
}What you can build
Enrich your product
Drop a plain-English summary, a what-it-covers breakdown, and a clean title next to any patent you already display — without writing the explanation yourself.
Feed an AI pipeline
Every record is typed, labelled, and URL-linked. Ingest the JSON or JSONL directly as grounded context for retrieval and summarisation.
Research & analysis
Pull the full index — owners, grant years, citation counts, public-domain status — into a notebook or spreadsheet for cohort and trend analysis.
Monitor the corpus
The dataset revalidates daily and grows every week as new grants are explained. Poll the index to track what's been added.
Free · public endpoints
Every endpoint above is live right now, free, and needs no key. Just GET it. Cached at the edge and revalidated daily. The complete list is on the developers page.
See all endpoints →Request access · for more
Building something that needs higher volume, a guaranteed rate limit, bulk export, or a commercial license? Tell us what you're building and we'll set you up.
Request access →Request access
Tell us what you're building.
We read every request. Share your use case and rough volume, and we'll get back to you about access.
Questions
Do I need an API key?
No. The public endpoints are free and require no key — just make a GET request. An access request is only needed for higher-volume, bulk, or commercial use beyond the public endpoints.
What format is the data in?
Structured JSON by default, with JSON Lines (JSONL), CSV, and Markdown also available. Every field is typed and labelled; URLs link back to the canonical record.
Can I use the data commercially?
The public data is free to use under the PatentBrief Terms. For commercial use at scale, or a guaranteed rate limit, request access below so we can talk through what you need.
For citation formats and the data license, see the data page and terms.