Monthly patent landscape report in Google Docs
On the first business day of each month, get a written patent landscape report for any tech topic, dropped straight into a Google Doc.
Integrations
USPTO PatentsView
Google Docs
Type
Categories
- Operations
- Product
Build me an agent workflow that generates a monthly patent landscape report for a tech topic I choose (for example, "retrieval augmented generation" or "solid-state batteries") and drops it into a Google Doc.
Trigger: cron, first business day of every month at 8am ET. PatentsView is not a poll provider, so cron is the right shape.
Inputs the agent should accept at configure time: (1) the topic phrase(s) to search, (2) the Google Drive folder ID where finished reports should be saved.
What the agent should do each run:
1. Use USPTO PatentsView "Search Granted Patents" to pull all patents granted in the last 90 days where patent_title or patent_abstract matches the topic phrase(s) using a text-phrase or text-any query. Then run the same query for the prior 90-day window so the agent can compute the volume delta. Respect the PatentsView rate limit (45 requests/min) and the 1000-row max page size. When total_hits exceeds one page, paginate with cursor pagination via o.after.
2. From the current-period patents, aggregate filings per assignee and call PatentsView "Search Assignees" to resolve the disambiguated assignee names. Produce the top 10 with counts.
3. For the most-cited patents in the current-period set, call PatentsView "Search US Patent Citations" to surface forward-citation counts. Pick the 5 to 7 standouts as the "notable patents" list.
4. Compose a 1 to 2 page written landscape report with these sections: (a) headline filing-volume trend vs the prior 90-day window, (b) top 10 assignees with counts, (c) 5 to 7 notable patents each with a one-sentence takeaway, (d) a short "what changed this month" summary calling out shifts in volume, new entrants, and themes among the standouts. The synthesis is judgement-heavy, which is why this is an agent workflow.
5. Use Google Docs "Create Document" to make a new doc titled "{Topic} Patent Landscape - {Month YYYY}" (for example, "Solid-State Batteries Patent Landscape - July 2026"), then use Google Docs "Batch Update Document" to write the body with headings (Heading 1 for the title, Heading 2 for each section) and paragraphs. Move the new doc into the configured Drive folder so reports archive cleanly together.
6. Return the Google Doc URL in the run output.
Integrations: patentsview (Search Granted Patents, Search Assignees, Search US Patent Citations), google-docs (Create Document, Batch Update Document).
What it does
- Pulls the last 90 days of granted US patents matching your chosen tech topic, then compares the volume to the prior 90 days so you can see if filing activity is heating up or cooling off.
- Ranks the top 10 companies filing in the space and counts how many patents each one landed this period.
- Picks 5 to 7 standout patents based on how often they have been cited and writes a one-sentence takeaway for each.
- Drops the finished one- to two-page report into a Google Doc titled with the topic and month, so your archive stays tidy in one Drive folder.
What you’ll need
- A tech topic or phrase you want to track (for example, retrieval augmented generation, solid-state batteries, mRNA vaccines).
- A Google account with permission to create Docs in the Drive folder where you want the reports to live.
- A USPTO PatentsView account (free) so we can run the patent searches on your behalf.
How to customize it
- Swap the topic, or run the same workflow multiple times for different topics so each one gets its own monthly report.
- Change the cadence: weekly instead of monthly, or the 15th of the month instead of the first business day.
- Tweak what the report covers (number of top assignees, number of notable patents, length of the written summary) or point the doc at a different Drive folder.
Use cases
- AI Reports
- Research & Monitoring
- Content Generation
