| name | patent-search |
| description | Search 100M+ patents via the MCP server's BigQuery tools. No standalone scripts; everything goes through the MCP tools registered by the patent-creator server. |
Patent Search Skill
This skill points Claude at the BigQuery patent-search tools registered by the patent-creator MCP server. Call the tools directly; do not shell out to Python.
When to use
- Find prior art by keyword, classification, or family.
- Pull full patent records (title, abstract, claims, description) for US patents.
- Cross-reference an EP/WO patent into its US family member to get full text.
Available MCP tools
| Tool | What it does |
|---|
search_patents_bigquery | Keyword search across abstract / title / claims (US only for claims). |
get_patent_bigquery | Full patent details by publication number. |
search_patents_by_cpc_bigquery | Search by CPC classification prefix. |
search_patents_by_ipc_bigquery | Search by IPC classification prefix (good for older or non-US patents). |
search_patent_family_bigquery | All publications sharing a family ID across jurisdictions. |
check_bigquery_status | Verify auth and quota project before a long workflow. |
Cost notes
BigQuery on-demand pricing is $6.25 / TiB (1 TiB free per month). The MCP server enforces a per-query bytes-billed ceiling, defaulting to 350 GiB. Override via PATENT_BIGQUERY_MAX_BYTES_BILLED if you need a larger scan window.
Choosing keywords
- 2-3 keywords work better than long phrases (BigQuery
LIKE matching is literal).
- For non-US patents,
claims is empty in the dataset; the MCP keyword tool already searches title/abstract for those jurisdictions. For full text on EP/WO, use the EPO OPS tools instead.
- Use
search_patent_family_bigquery to bridge from an EP/WO hit to its US family member when you need claims.
Common workflows
Prior art sweep:
search_patents_bigquery(query=…, country="US") — broad scan.- Pick the top hits' CPC codes from
get_patent_bigquery.
search_patents_by_cpc_bigquery(cpc_code=…) — pull adjacent technology.
Cross-jurisdiction lookup:
search_patents_bigquery(query=…, country="EP").- For any EP hit,
get_patent_bigquery to get its family_id.
search_patent_family_bigquery(family_id=…) to find the US member with full claims.
