Patent & Literature Search MCP

Name: patent-literature-search-mcp
Author: patsnap

Search 200M+ patents and scientific literature in natural language,
directly inside Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-compatible AI tool.
Powered by Patsnap's proprietary R&D intelligence database.

About Patsnap

Patsnap is a global innovation intelligence platform covering 200M+
patents across 170+ jurisdictions (USPTO, EPO, WIPO and more), 216M+
scientific papers, and R&D data.

To explore Patsnap data interactively, try
Eureka, Patsnap's AI-native R&D
assistant. To access data programmatically, use the MCP servers or
REST API via Patsnap Open Platform.

What It Does

Patent & Literature Search MCP gives your AI agent direct access to
Patsnap's patent and academic literature databases — searchable
together in a single query, in natural language, without switching
tools or learning Boolean syntax.

Patent search — keyword, assignee, inventor, IPC class, legal
status, date range, and citation filters
Literature search — semantic and keyword search across
peer-reviewed scientific papers
Fusion search — orchestrate patent and paper searches using the
same tool and combine the structured results for AI reasoning
Natural language input — describe your problem or topic in
plain English or Chinese; the MCP constructs the search strategy
Precision filtering — filter by assignee, inventor, legal
status, jurisdiction, date range, and citation count simultaneously

Quick Start

1. Get your API key

Register at Patsnap Open Platform and
generate a free API key from the
Patent & Literature Search MCP page.
New accounts include 10,000 free credits. No credit card required.

2. Add to Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http search-tool \
  "https://connect.patsnap.com/2b0355/logic-mcp?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY"

Restart Claude Code and type /mcp to confirm it loaded.

3. Add to Cursor or Windsurf

Add the following to your MCP configuration file:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "patsnap_patent_literature": {
      "url": "https://connect.patsnap.com/2b0355/logic-mcp?apikey=YOUR_API_KEY",
      "type": "streamableHttp"
    }
  }
}

Replace YOUR_API_KEY with your key from Patsnap Open Platform.

Run the Containerized MCP Bridge

The repository includes a local stdio bridge for environments that
install or deploy MCP servers from source. It exposes static tool
definitions without credentials and forwards tool calls to the hosted
Patsnap Streamable HTTP service when PATSNAP_API_KEY is configured.

Docker

docker build -t patsnap-patent-literature-search .
docker run --rm -i \
  -e PATSNAP_API_KEY=YOUR_API_KEY \
  patsnap-patent-literature-search

MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "patsnap_patent_literature": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "--rm",
        "-i",
        "-e",
        "PATSNAP_API_KEY",
        "ghcr.io/patsnap/patent-literature-search-mcp:latest"
      ],
      "env": {
        "PATSNAP_API_KEY": "YOUR_API_KEY"
      }
    }
  }
}

The GitHub Actions workflow publishes version tags such as v1.1.0
to GHCR as both 1.1.0 and latest.

An optional live upstream check can be run manually from GitHub
Actions. Add PATSNAP_TEST_API_KEY as a repository Actions secret,
start the workflow with Run workflow, and enable
run_upstream. Pull requests never receive or use this secret.

Tools

patsnap_search — Search either patents or scientific literature in a
request. Supports natural-language and semantic queries, precise keyword
and BM25-based text search, and filters such as assignee, inventor, IPC
classification, legal status, jurisdiction, date range, and citations.
Call it once per source when both corpora are required.
patsnap_fetch — Retrieve a patent or literature record as Markdown using
one or more result URLs. Patent records can also be fetched by publication
number and may include bibliographic data, claims, descriptions, drawings,
citations, legal data, and patent-family data. Literature records include
core bibliographic and abstract metadata.

Development

Requires Node.js 20 or newer.

npm ci
npm test
npm start

The test suite verifies:

static tool discovery without an API key;
argument validation and upstream forwarding;
structured MCP error handling;
a real stdio initialize and tools/list handshake.

To verify the container locally:

docker build -t patent-literature-search-mcp:test .
npm run test:docker

The server writes MCP JSON-RPC only to stdout. Application errors are
returned as MCP tool results, and credentials are never included in logs.

Glama Release

After claiming the server on Glama:

Open the server's Dockerfile Admin page.
Select the repository-root Dockerfile.
Add PATSNAP_API_KEY as a secret deployment environment variable.
Use node src/index.js as the command if Glama does not infer the
Dockerfile CMD.
Run Deploy, verify the MCP build test, and create a release.

Example Prompts

What is Tesla actually working on in battery technology — show me
their recent patent filings, group by technology area, and identify
who is leading each.

Which GLP-1 receptor agonist patents are expiring before 2028,
and what does recent literature say about next-generation mechanisms?

My EV battery loses 40% range in cold weather. What technical
solutions exist in patents and academic papers?

Resources

License

Apache-2.0