Snapshot download
The data behind the PatentRef API is published on Zenodo with a DOI, as the three SQLite 3 files of one build, in the layout the API serves. The files are on public object storage (about 504.2 GB in all); the Zenodo record holds the README, which says how to fetch, check and query them, and the SHA256SUMS file.
- DOI (every version)
- 10.5281/zenodo.23250455, which always resolves to the newest version
- Newest version
- 10.5281/zenodo.23612407 (Zenodo record), data version 20261020.1, build 20261020.1+af17b9ed, Zenodo publication date 2026-10-24
- Covers
- US patents granted from 1976 through the issue of 2026-10-20 (the PatentsView release through 2025-12-30, then 42 USPTO weekly grant files with 304,889 patents); maintenance-fee events from MaintFeeEvents_20261013.zip; the long text of patents granted through 2025-12-30
- License
- CC BY 4.0; reuse carries the attribution lines below (data, licenses and attribution)
Files
| File | Bytes | SHA-256 | What it holds | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
snapshot_20261020.1.db | 166,576,189,440 | 64b6466fb51d2a05982082b231b1510a3e8c805933867c0b0d942462015af889 | the API layout: patents, inventors, assignees, locations, attorneys, classifications, citations and the other data tables | download |
lapse_20261020.1.db | 38,091,202,560 | 551a640441a97d667def06df118a9e12299bd737d0771e3356d19f561c6b8360 | the Lapse catalog: one row per granted patent with its dates, owners, forward citations and maintenance-fee status | download |
text_20261006.4.db | 299,565,654,016 | 218d1f54fd4ce0ce4d30365afe5f71cb2d49c74d90faa5e5f61df59c5724944f | the long text: claims, brief summaries, detailed descriptions from 2005 on and drawing descriptions | download |
Each link is a plain HTTPS GET with no account or key. A long transfer from the storage can stall and be cut off part way; a download that stops resumes where it stopped (curl -C -), and the download block in the record's README resumes and retries on its own.
Check the files
Put the SHA256SUMS file of the Zenodo record beside the three files and run:
sha256sum -c SHA256SUMSEvery line must say OK (on macOS: shasum -a 256 -c SHA256SUMS).
Attribution
- Patent data from PatentsView and the USPTO, used under CC BY 4.0. PatentRef is an independent service and is not affiliated with the USPTO.
- Family data from Google Patents Public Datasets, used under CC BY 4.0.
The snapshot and the live API
The snapshot is one fixed build. The API moves on every week (new grants and maintenance-fee events), so its data version, in the header of this page and in X-Data-Version on every answer, is usually newer. A new snapshot version is added to the same DOI each quarter.