search_pv: Search PatentsView

In patentsview: An R Client to the 'PatentsView' API

Search PatentsView

Description

This makes an HTTP request to the PatentsView API for data matching the user's query.

Usage

search_pv(
  query,
  fields = NULL,
  endpoint = "patent",
  subent_cnts = lifecycle::deprecated(),
  mtchd_subent_only = lifecycle::deprecated(),
  page = lifecycle::deprecated(),
  per_page = lifecycle::deprecated(),
  size = 1000,
  after = NULL,
  all_pages = FALSE,
  sort = NULL,
  method = "GET",
  error_browser = lifecycle::deprecated(),
  exclude_withdrawn = NULL,
  api_key = Sys.getenv("PATENTSVIEW_API_KEY"),
  ...
)

Arguments

query	The query that the API will use to filter records. query can come in any one of the following forms: A character string with valid JSON. E.g., '{"_gte":{"patent_date":"2007-01-04"}}' A list which will be converted to JSON by search_pv. E.g., list("_gte" = list("patent_date" = "2007-01-04")) An object of class pv_query, which you create by calling one of the functions found in the qry_funs list...See the writing queries vignette for details. E.g., qry_funs$gte(patent_date = "2007-01-04")
fields	A character vector of the fields that you want returned to you. A value of NULL indicates to the API that it should return the default fields for that endpoint. Acceptable fields for a given endpoint can be found in the fieldsdf data frame (View(fieldsdf)) or by using get_fields. Nested fields can be fully qualified, e.g., "application.filing_date" or you can use the group name that the field belongs to if you want all of the nested fields for that group. Note: The primary key columns for a given endpoint will be appended to your list of fields within search_pv. You can see the get_ok_pk to determine what those columns will be for a given endpoint. Note: If you specify all fields in a given group using their full qualified names, the group name will be substituted in the HTTTP request. This helps make HTTP requests shorter. This substitution will not happen when you specify all of the primary-entity fields (e.g., passing get_fields("patent", "patents") into search_pv would not substitute use the group name "patents" in place of all of the fields).
endpoint	The web service resource you wish to search. Use get_endpoints() to list the available endpoints.
subent_cnts	This is always FALSE in the new version of the API as the total counts of unique subentities is no longer available.
mtchd_subent_only	This is always FALSE in the new version of the API as non-matched subentities will always be returned.
page	The new version of the API does not use page as a parameter for paging, it uses after.
per_page	The API now uses size
size	The number of records that should be returned per page. This value can be as high as 1,000 (e.g., size = 1000).
after	A list of sort key values that defaults to NULL. This exposes the API's paging parameter for users who want to implement their own paging. It cannot be set when all_pages = TRUE as the R package manipulates it for users automatically. See result set paging
all_pages	Do you want to download all possible pages of output? If all_pages = TRUE, the value of size is ignored.
sort	A named character vector where the name indicates the field to sort by and the value indicates the direction of sorting (direction should be either "asc" or "desc"). For example, sort = c("patent_id" = "asc") or sort = c("patent_id" = "asc", "patent_date" = "desc"). sort = NULL (the default) means the API will use the default sort column for your given endpoint. You must include any fields that you wish to sort by in fields.
method	The HTTP method that you want to use to send the request. Possible values include "GET" or "POST". Use the POST method when your query is very long (say, over 2,000 characters in length).
error_browser	'r lifecycle::badge("deprecated"
exclude_withdrawn	only used by the patent endpoint, if FALSE withdrawn patents in the database can be returned by a query. The API defaults this to TRUE, not returning withdrawn patents in the database that met the query parameter.
api_key	API key, it defaults to Sys.getenv("PATENTSVIEW_API_KEY"). Request a key here.
...	Curl options passed along to httr2's req_options when we do GETs or POSTs.

Value

A list with the following three elements:

data

A list with one element - a named data frame containing the data returned by the server. Each row in the data frame corresponds to a single value for the primary entity, as defined by the endpoint's primary key. For example, if you search the assignee endpoint, then the data frame will be on the assignee-level, where each row corresponds to a single assignee (primary key would be assignee_id). Fields that are not on the assignee-level would be returned in list columns.

query_results

Entity counts across all pages of output (not just the page returned to you).

request

Details of the HTTP request that was sent to the server. When you set all_pages = TRUE, you will only get a sample request. In other words, you will not be given multiple requests for the multiple calls that were made to the server (one for each page of results).

Examples

## Not run: 

search_pv(query = '{"_gt":{"patent_year":2010}}')

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$gt(patent_year = 2010),
  fields = get_fields("patent", c("patents", "assignees"))
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$gt(patent_year = 2010),
  method = "POST",
  fields = "patent_id",
  sort = c("patent_id" = "asc")
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$eq(inventor_name_last = "Crew"),
  endpoint = "inventor",
  all_pages = TRUE
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$contains(assignee_individual_name_last = "Smith"),
  endpoint = "assignee"
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$contains(inventors.inventor_name_last = "Smith"),
  endpoint = "patent",
  timeout = 40
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$eq(patent_id = "11530080"),
  fields = "application"
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$eq(patent_id = "9494444"),  # a withdrawn patent in the pview dbs
  fields = c("patent_id", "patent_date", "withdrawn"),
  exclude_withdrawn = FALSE
)

search_pv(
  query = qry_funs$eq(withdrawn = TRUE),
  fields = c("patent_id", "patent_date", "withdrawn"),
  exclude_withdrawn = FALSE
)

## End(Not run)

patentsview documentation built on Feb. 26, 2026, 5:07 p.m.