# Patent Assignee Check

> Discover all spelling variations and official assignee names for a company in patent databases. Always use this skill when the user asks to check, verify, or find assignee name variations (e.g., 'Google Inc.' vs 'Google LLC' vs 'Alphabet Inc.') to ensure comprehensive patent searches.

- Skill: `sonesuke/patent-assignee-check` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sonesuke/patent-assignee-check`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sonesuke/patent-assignee-check/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: sonesuke (https://skillmd.com/u/sonesuke)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sonesuke/patent-assignee-check

---


# Patent Assignee Check

Check assignee name variations and verify the correct assignee name used in patent databases.

## Purpose

Identify spelling variations and official assignee names for a given company in patent databases. This helps ensure comprehensive patent searches by capturing all name variations.

## MCP Tool

Uses `search_patents` MCP tool provided by google-patent-cli.

## Usage

Search for patents by assignee to find name variations, then use Cypher to analyze:

```
patent_assignee_check({
  company_name: "Toyota",
  country: "JP"
})

# Returns dataset name like "search-abc123"
# Then query with execute_cypher to find variations:
execute_cypher({
  dataset: "search-abc123",
  query: "MATCH (p:Patent) RETURN p.assignee, COUNT(*) AS count ORDER BY count DESC"
})
```

**CRITICAL**: After searching, always use `execute_cypher` to retrieve results.
Do NOT read the output JSON file directly. The JSON file is an internal
artifact — all data is available through cypher queries.

### Result Retrieval Patterns

**Assignee name variations with counts**:

```cypher
MATCH (p:Patent) RETURN p.assignee, COUNT(*) AS count ORDER BY count DESC
```

**Assignee variations with sample titles**:

```cypher
MATCH (p:Patent) RETURN p.assignee, p.title, p.snippet LIMIT 20
```

## Parameters

- `company_name` (string, required): Company name to check for variations
- `country` (string, optional): Filter by country code (JP, US, CN)
- `limit` (number, optional): Maximum results (default: 100)

## Common Variations

Typical assignee name variations include:

- **Legal form changes**: Inc. → LLC, Ltd. → Co., Ltd.
- **Mergers/Acquisitions**: Old company names vs new parent company names
- **Spelling differences**: Brackets, commas, abbreviations
- **Subsidiaries**: Parent company vs subsidiary names

## Integration with Patent Search

After identifying assignee variations, use them in `patent-search`:

```
# Search with multiple assignee variations
patent_search({
  assignee: "Google LLC",
  country: "US"
})
```