IPfactory

IPfactory

Swiss patent search engine · 76 million patent families, covering 174 million patent documents · updated 13 Oct 2026, EPO week 41

Entire infrastructure in Switzerland · your queries and results are never stored · Learn more

You are browsing recorded examples — real searches, replayed without the engine. Sign in or create a free account to search the corpus live.

Connect your assistant

Use IPfactory from Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, VS Code or your own agent — the engine becomes a set of tools (MCP) your assistant calls on your behalf, under your account.

1 · Connect in two clicks

Server address: https://app.ipfactory.ai/mcp — paste it where your assistant adds a connector, then sign in to IPfactory in the window that opens and click Allow. No key to copy.
Claude (claude.ai on the web, mobile and desktop) — Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector: name IPfactory, the address above, Add, then Connect. On a Team or Enterprise plan the Owner adds it once; each member then connects with their own IPfactory account. Enable IPfactory in the tools menu of a conversation.
Claude Code (terminal) — one command, then your browser opens on the IPfactory sign-in: 
claude mcp add --transport http ipfactory https://app.ipfactory.ai/mcp
ChatGPT — Settings → Apps → Advanced → Developer mode (on Business and Enterprise plans an administrator enables it), then Create: name IPfactory, the address above, authentication OAuth. Enable IPfactory from the + menu of a conversation.
Signed-in connections are listed here, with a Disconnect button.

2 · Access key (for Cursor, VS Code and your own agent)

Your access key is generated here once you are signed in. Sign in or create a free account — the key is shown once, IPfactory keeps only its fingerprint, and every call is journaled as counts only.
Quotas per account and per day: 300 searches, 1,000 counts, 50 legal-status lookups. Only metadata is recorded (counts and times) — never your queries, documents or results.
Cursor / VS Code — in mcp.json: 
{ "ipfactory": { "url": "https://app.ipfactory.ai/mcp", "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_KEY" } } }
Claude Desktop without OAuth — in Settings → Developer → Edit Config (claude_desktop_config.json), through the mcp-remote bridge: 
{ "mcpServers": { "ipfactory": { "command": "npx",
    "args": ["-y", "mcp-remote", "https://app.ipfactory.ai/mcp", "--header", "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_KEY"] } } }
Your own agent — any MCP client library: streamable HTTP at the address above, either the OAuth flow (discovery at /.well-known/oauth-protected-resource/mcp) or the header Authorization: Bearer <your key>. Tools are prefixed ipfactory_.

3 · What your assistant can do

ipfactory_searchsemantic prior-art search (English description or from a patent number), full abstracts, citation-likelihood zones, year timeline
ipfactory_countboolean counts (keywords, CPC, assignee, inventor, countries, dates) without running a search
ipfactory_get_document · _family · _citationsrecord, family members, citation graph with the examiner flag
ipfactory_legal_statusINPADOC legal events (strict quota — finalists only)
ipfactory_list_corporaavailable corpora and their capabilities
The tools carry the method: English queries, 10-20 reformulations, zones as reading priorities, stop at saturation, read before discarding. Your assistant follows it on its own — just describe your invention or ask your question.