google-patent-cli

A command-line tool to fetch patent metadata from Google Patents.

Installation

# pipx (recommended — isolated environment)
pipx install google-patent-cli

# uv
uv tool install google-patent-cli

# pip
pip install google-patent-cli

Windows users: If the gpc command is not recognized after installation, run pipx ensurepath and restart your terminal.

Update

# pipx
pipx upgrade google-patent-cli

# uv
uv tool upgrade google-patent-cli

# pip
pip install --upgrade google-patent-cli

Usage

Fetch a patent

# Default output (JSON)
gpc lookup US20250350789

# Text format
gpc lookup US12514139B2 --format text

# TSV format
gpc lookup US20250350789 --format tsv

# Single field
gpc lookup US20250350789 --field title

# Multiple fields
gpc lookup US20250350789 --fields title,assignee,filing_date

# Save to file
gpc lookup US12514139B2 --output-dir ./output
gpc lookup US12514139B2 --format text --output-dir ./output

Download patent PDF

# Save to current directory as US9735861B2.pdf
gpc download US9735861

# Save to a specific directory
gpc download US9735861 --output-dir ./pdfs

List available fields

gpc fields

Field	Description
publication_number	Publication number (e.g. US12514139B2)
number_without_kind	Publication number without kind code
application_number	Application number
kind_code	Kind code (e.g. B2, A1)
country	Country code
title	Title of the invention
abstract	Abstract
inventors	List of inventors
assignee	Assignee / applicant
filing_date	Filing date
publication_date	Publication date
cpc_codes	CPC classification codes
claims	List of claims
description	Full description text
pdf_url	PDF download URL
patent_url	Google Patents page URL (with kind code)

Proxy / SSL configuration

For corporate networks or proxy environments:

gpc configure

Settings are saved to ~/.patent-cli.toml:

[proxy]
https = "http://proxy.example.com:8080"
http  = "http://proxy.example.com:8080"

[ssl]
ca_bundle = "/path/to/ca-bundle.crt"

Options

gpc lookup --help

Options:
  -f, --format [json|text|tsv]  Output format (default: json)
  --field FIELD                  Print a single field value
  --fields F1,F2,...             Comma-separated list of fields to include
  -t, --timeout INTEGER          HTTP timeout in seconds (default: 15)
  -o, --output-dir DIR           Directory to save output file
  -v, --verbose                  Print debug logs to stderr

Uninstall

# pipx
pipx uninstall google-patent-cli

# uv
uv tool uninstall google-patent-cli

# pip
pip uninstall google-patent-cli

Run as a module

python -m google_patent_cli lookup US12514139B2

Disclaimer

This tool scrapes Google Patents public web pages. Please comply with Google's Terms of Service. Excessive requests may result in IP blocking.

License

MIT