Weekly competitor patent radar in Slack
Every Monday at 8am, post a single Slack digest of last week's new US patents and applications from the competitors on your watch list.
USPTO PatentsView
SlackProductOperationsResearch & MonitoringNotifications & AlertsDaily DigestsBuild me a competitor patent radar that runs every Monday at 8:00am on a cron trigger.
Inputs I should be able to configure: (1) a list of competitor company names to use as patent assignees, (2) the Slack channel to post the digest to, and (3) the lookback window (default 7 days).
On each run, use USPTO PatentsView to find new filings from those competitors in the lookback window:
1. Call Search Granted Patents filtered to those assignees with patent_date in the last 7 days. Pull patent_id, patent_title, patent_abstract, patent_date, assignees, and inventors.
2. Call Search Pre-Grant Publications filtered to those assignees with filing_date in the last 7 days. Pull document_number, publication title, abstract, filing_date, assignees, and inventors.
3. For each granted patent, call Get Granted Patent Brief Summary (and Get Granted Patent Claims if the brief summary is empty) and write a 2-3 sentence plain-English summary of what the invention actually does.
Reminder on PatentsView usage: every request needs the q parameter, sort fields must be listed in f, withdrawn patents are excluded by default, and the active host is search.patentsview.org/api/v1.
Then post a single digest message to the configured Slack channel using Send a Message. Group entries by competitor (one section per assignee). For each filing show:
- The patent title as a link to the USPTO record (https://patents.google.com/patent/US{patent_id} for grants, https://patents.google.com/patent/US{document_number}A1 for pre-grant pubs)
- Assignee name
- Inventor names
- Filing date or grant date, and whether it is a granted patent or pre-grant publication
- The 2-3 sentence plain-English summary
Use Slack mrkdwn formatting (*bold* for competitor headers, <url|text> for links). Cap each summary at 3 sentences so the digest stays scannable.
If no new filings dropped that week, still post a short message to the channel like "No new patent filings from your watch list this week." so the channel knows the radar is alive.
Additional information
What does this prompt do?
- Every Monday at 8am, scans the US patent system for last week's new filings from the competitors on your watch list.
- Pulls both newly granted patents and freshly published applications so you catch competitors early, not 18 months after the fact.
- Writes a 2-3 sentence plain-English summary of each filing so non-lawyers can tell at a glance what it is actually about.
- Posts one tidy digest to your chosen Slack channel, grouped by competitor, with title, inventors, dates, and a link to the USPTO record.
What do I need to use this?
- A USPTO PatentsView API key (free, the USPTO emails you one after you sign up at data.uspto.gov).
- A Slack workspace and permission to post in the channel you want the digest to land in.
- A short list of competitor company names to watch (the names they file patents under).
How can I customize it?
- Change the schedule (e.g. Friday afternoon instead of Monday morning) or the lookback window (30 days for a slower beat).
- Swap the channel, or send to a private channel for a smaller competitive intel circle.
- Add or remove competitors from the watch list, or split into multiple radars by industry segment.
Frequently asked questions
Does this cover patent applications, or only granted patents?
What if my competitors had a quiet week with no filings?
How accurate is the plain-English summary?
Does this cover patents filed outside the United States?
Can I send the digest somewhere besides Slack?
Related templates
Stop finding out about competitor patents from a news article.
Connect Slack and your USPTO PatentsView key once, and Geni posts a competitor patent digest to your channel every Monday at 8am.