US Patent and Trademark Office Python API Docs | dltHub

The USPTO Open Data Portal (ODP) API provides programmatic access to patent application, continuity, document, and patent term adjustment data through REST endpoints. The REST API base URL is https://api.uspto.gov and requests require an API key in the X-API-KEY header.

dlt is an open-source Python library that handles authentication, pagination, and schema evolution automatically. dlthub provides AI context files that enable code assistants to generate production-ready pipelines. Install with uv add "dlt[hub]" and start loading US Patent and Trademark Office data in under 10 minutes.

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What data can I load from US Patent and Trademark Office?

Here are some of the endpoints you can load from US Patent and Trademark Office:

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How do I authenticate with the US Patent and Trademark Office API?

The USPTO Open Data Portal requires an API key provided in the 'X-API-KEY' HTTP header for all requests. The key must be obtained by registering for a USPTO.gov account and verifying identity via ID.me.

1. Get your credentials

To obtain USPTO API credentials, follow these steps: 1. Create a USPTO.gov account at https://data.uspto.gov/. 2. Ensure your account has Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) enabled. 3. Navigate to your USPTO profile settings and locate the 'Open Data Portal' section in the left navigation menu to provide the required additional profile information (effective August 18, 2026). 4. Verify your identity with ID.me and link it to your USPTO.gov account. 5. Once registered and verified, sign in to the Open Data Portal and navigate to the 'Manage API Key' page (https://data.uspto.gov/apikey) to request and view your API key. Note that the USPTO maintains two distinct API systems; the process above covers the primary Open Data Portal (ODP) API. For the Trademark Status & Document Retrieval (TSDR) API, you must request a separate key via the TSDR API Key Manager at https://account.uspto.gov/profile/api-manager/.

2. Add them to .dlt/secrets.toml

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[sources.us_patent_and_trademark_office_source]
api_key = "REPLACE_ME"

dlt reads this automatically at runtime — never hardcode tokens in your pipeline script. For production environments, see setting up credentials with dlt for environment variable and vault-based options.

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How do I set up and run the pipeline?

Set up a virtual environment and install dlt:

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uv init
uv add "dlt[hub]"

1. Install the dlt AI harness:

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uv run dlthub ai init --agent <your-agent> # <agent>: claude | cursor | codex

This installs project rules, a secrets management skill, appropriate ignore files, and configures the dlt MCP server for your agent. Learn more →

2. Install the rest-api-pipeline toolkit:

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uv run dlthub ai toolkit install rest-api-pipeline

This loads the skills and context about dlt the agent uses to build the pipeline iteratively, efficiently, and safely. The agent uses MCP tools to inspect credentials — it never needs to read your secrets.toml directly. Learn more →

3. Start LLM-assisted coding:

Use /find-source to load data from the US Patent and Trademark Office API into DuckDB.

The rest-api-pipeline toolkit takes over from here — it reads relevant API documentation, presents you with options for which endpoints to load, and follows a structured workflow to scaffold, debug, and validate the pipeline step by step.

4. Run the pipeline:

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uv run python us_patent_and_trademark_office_pipeline.py

If everything is configured correctly, you'll see output like this:

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Pipeline us_patent_and_trademark_office_pipeline load step completed in 0.26 seconds
1 load package(s) were loaded to destination duckdb and into dataset us_patent_and_trademark_office_data
The duckdb destination used duckdb:/us_patent_and_trademark_office.duckdb location to store data
Load package 1749667187.541553 is LOADED and contains no failed jobs

Inspect your pipeline and data:

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uv run dlthub show

This opens the Pipeline Dashboard where you can verify pipeline state, load metrics, schema (tables, columns, types), and query the loaded data directly.

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Python pipeline example

This example loads https://api.uspto.gov (for Open Data Portal) and https://tsdrapi.uspto.gov (for Trademark Status & Document Retrieval) from the US Patent and Trademark Office API into DuckDB. It mirrors the endpoint and data selector configuration from the table above:

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import dlt
from dlt.sources.rest_api import RESTAPIConfig, rest_api_resources

@dlt.source
def us_patent_and_trademark_office_source(api_key=dlt.secrets.value):
    config: RESTAPIConfig = {
        "client": {
            "base_url": "https://api.uspto.gov",
            "auth": {"type": "api_key", "api_key": api_key, "name": "X-API-KEY", "location": "header"},
        },
        "resources": [
            {"name": "patent_applications_search", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/patent/applications/search"}},
            {"name": "patent_applications_search_post", "endpoint": {"path": "api/v1/patent/applications/search"}}
        ],
    }
    yield from rest_api_resources(config)


def get_data() -> None:
    pipeline = dlt.pipeline(
        pipeline_name="us_patent_and_trademark_office_pipeline",
        destination="duckdb",
        dataset_name="us_patent_and_trademark_office_data",
    )
    load_info = pipeline.run(us_patent_and_trademark_office_source())
    print(load_info)

To add more endpoints, append entries from the resource table to the "resources" list using the same name, path, and data_selector pattern.

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How do I query the loaded data?

Once the pipeline runs, dlt creates one table per resource. You can query with Python or SQL.

Python (pandas DataFrame):

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("us_patent_and_trademark_office_pipeline").dataset()
sessions_df = data.patent_applications_search.df()
print(sessions_df.head())

SQL (DuckDB example):

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SELECT * FROM us_patent_and_trademark_office_data.patent_applications_search LIMIT 10;

In a marimo or Jupyter notebook:

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import dlt

data = dlt.pipeline("us_patent_and_trademark_office_pipeline").dataset()
data.patent_applications_search.df().head()

See how to explore your data in marimo Notebooks and how to query your data in Python with dataset.

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What destinations can I load US Patent and Trademark Office data to?

dlt supports loading into any of these destinations — only the destination parameter changes:

Change the destination in dlt.pipeline(destination="snowflake") and add credentials in .dlt/secrets.toml. See the full destinations list.

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Next steps

Continue your data engineering journey with the other toolkits of the dltHub AI harness:

• data-exploration — Build custom notebooks, charts, and dashboards for deeper analysis with marimo notebooks.
• dlthub-platform — Deploy, schedule, and monitor your pipeline in production.

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uv run dlthub ai toolkit install data-exploration
uv run dlthub ai toolkit install dlthub-platform

• How to deploy a pipeline
• How to explore your data in marimo Notebooks
• How to query your data in Python with dataset
• Join the dlt community on Slack