Patent Watch Monitor

Store Positioning

Store title: Patent Watch Monitor

Short description: Monitor patent publications, assignees, keywords, and technology areas from public sources.

SEO title: Patent Watch Monitor — official public data extraction and monitoring

SEO description: Monitor patent publications, assignees, keywords, and technology areas from public sources. Use it to normalize official public data into clean Apify datasets with source-specific fields and report artifacts.

Categories: AUTOMATION

Keywords: patent, watch, monitor, public data, official/public-data actor

Fixed-Inclusive PPE Pricing

This actor uses pay-per-event pricing. Event prices include Apify platform usage; users are not expected to pay a separate platform-usage pass-through charge for the configured pricing model.

• Tier: D1 — Official/public-data actor
• Primary event: record-checked at $0.00908 base
• Default max charge: $15.00
• Store discounts: FREE/BRONZE base, SILVER discounted, GOLD deepest approved discount

Event set:

• actor-start: base $0.02000, GOLD $0.01760. Patent Watch Monitor: charged when actor start is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• record-checked: base $0.00908, GOLD $0.00799. Patent Watch Monitor: charged when record checked is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• event-detected: base $0.01300, GOLD $0.01140. Patent Watch Monitor: charged when event detected is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.
• report-generated: base $0.05000, GOLD $0.04400. Patent Watch Monitor: charged when report generated is completed. The price includes Apify platform usage; no separate usage pass-through is intended.

Public Task Concepts

• Compare previous and current Patent Watch snapshots
• Monitor Patent Watch changes for a capped watchlist
• Build a Patent Watch change digest from supplied evidence
• Prioritize high-impact Patent Watch changes
• Export Patent Watch change rows for client review

Monitor patent publications, assignees, keywords, and technology areas from public sources.

What This Actor Does

Patent Watch Monitor turns small, explicit watchlists or supplied records into structured Apify dataset rows and a concise report. It is built for local-first and Store-safe default runs: the default input uses deterministic fixture records, applies tight caps, and does not spend network, browser, proxy, LLM, or live Apify usage by default.

The actor checks each supplied record for source identity, matched watch terms, actor-specific metadata, issue signals, severity, recommendations, and pricing metadata. It writes one dataset row per processed record and, when enabled, key-value-store JSON and Markdown summaries for review workflows.

What This Actor Does Not Do

• It does not provide legal, medical, financial, investment, safety, or compliance advice.
• It does not guarantee completeness of any public source or third-party dataset.
• It does not collect sensitive personal data by default.
• It does not rely on unsupported private APIs.
• It does not run live Apify publication, pricing, icon upload, or smoke-test steps from local validation.

Best Use Cases

• competitive patent watchlists
• technology-area monitoring
• assignee change reviews

Input Fields Explained

Field	Type	Default	Notes
records	array	fixture records	Records or snapshots to check. Each item can include title, description, body, entity, category, keywords, and metadata.
urls	array	[]	Reserved for optional source URLs. Defaults do not fetch URLs.
fetchUrls	boolean	false	Enables HTTP fetching for records with sourceUrl and no body. Keep false for deterministic local runs.
watchTerms	array	actor defaults	Terms used to mark relevant records and alerts.
includeReport	boolean	true	Writes JSON and Markdown report artifacts to the key-value store.
maxItems	integer	2	Caps processed records. Maximum is 50.
maxTextBytes	integer	500000	Caps analyzed text per record.
debug	boolean	false	Enables debug logging.

Example Input

{
  "records": [
    {
      "sourceId": "patent-match-1",
      "sourceUrl": "https://patents.example/publication/US202600001",
      "title": "Battery recycling process for solid state cells",
      "description": "Publication US202600001 assigned to Example Energy covers battery recycling and solid state battery recovery.",
      "entityName": "Example Energy",
      "category": "energy storage",
      "date": "2026-06-30",
      "keywords": [
        "battery recycling",
        "solid state battery"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "publicationId": "US202600001",
        "assignee": "Example Energy",
        "technologyArea": "Energy storage",
        "publicationDate": "2026-06-30"
      }
    },
    {
      "sourceId": "patent-missing-id",
      "sourceUrl": "https://patents.example/publication/missing",
      "title": "Industrial coating fixture",
      "description": "A coating fixture outside the configured watch terms.",
      "entityName": "Other Industrial",
      "category": "manufacturing",
      "date": "2026-06-29",
      "keywords": [
        "coating"
      ],
      "metadata": {
        "assignee": "Other Industrial",
        "technologyArea": "Manufacturing"
      }
    }
  ],
  "includeReport": true,
  "maxItems": 2
}

Output Fields Explained

Field	Meaning
auditId	Stable hash for the checked record.
sourceId, sourceUrl	Source identifiers for traceability.
status, severity, score	Normalized outcome and 0-100 quality/risk score.
matchedKeywords	Watch terms found in the record text or metadata.
issues, issueCodes	Actor-specific findings with severity and messages.
recommendations	Next actions for the operator or content/data owner.
metadata	Original metadata plus derived helper fields when applicable.
pricingTemplate, pricingEventName	Pricing source and primary PPE event used by the actor.

Example Output

{
  "auditId": "patentw_3bfd49d252945548",
  "actorSlug": "patent-watch-monitor",
  "actorName": "Patent Watch Monitor",
  "sourceType": "fixture",
  "sourceId": "patent-match-1",
  "sourceUrl": "https://patents.example/publication/US202600001",
  "title": "Battery recycling process for solid state cells",
  "status": "pass",
  "severity": "none",
  "score": 100,
  "matchedKeywords": [
    "battery recycling",
    "solid state battery"
  ],
  "primaryEntity": "Example Energy",
  "category": "energy storage",
  "publishedAt": "2026-06-30",
  "summary": "Publication US202600001 assigned to Example Energy covers battery recycling and solid state battery recovery.",
  "issueCount": 0,
  "issues": [],
  "issueCodes": [],
  "recommendations": [
    "Patent Watch Monitor did not find immediate risk signals for this record. Re-run after source data changes."
  ],
  "metadata": {
    "publicationId": "US202600001",
    "assignee": "Example Energy",
    "technologyArea": "Energy storage",
    "publicationDate": "2026-06-30",
    "sourceSpecific": {
      "patentRows": [
        {
          "publicationNumber": "patent-match-1",
          "assignee": "Example Energy",
          "inventors": [],
          "filingDate": "2026-06-30",
          "cpcClasses": [],
          "matchedWatchTerms": [
            "battery recycling",
            "solid state battery"
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "normalizedTextPreview": "patent-match-1 https://patents.example/publication/US202600001 Battery recycling process for solid state cells Publication US202600001 assigned to Example Energy covers battery recycling and solid state battery recovery.  Example Energy ene"
  },
  "textBytes": 414,
  "checkedAt": "2026-07-02T00:00:00.000Z",
  "pricingTemplate": "D1 — Official/public-data actor",
  "pricingEventName": "record-checked"
}

Cost-Control Tips

• Keep maxItems small for default and scheduled checks.
• Use supplied records or snapshots for deterministic QA runs.
• Leave fetchUrls off unless live source fetching is explicitly needed.
• Review warning rows before increasing caps.
• Schedule small frequent runs instead of broad one-off sweeps.

Scheduling Examples

• Daily watchlist check with two to five high-value records.
• Weekly QA run before publishing a site, data, or actor update.
• Post-migration or post-release validation using a fixed fixture set.

Public Task Examples

• tiny-default-check - Run a two-record patent watch monitor fixture check with report artifacts enabled.
• watchlist-digest - Process a small supplied watchlist and summarize matched terms.
• risk-triage-report - Return only records with warning or fail status for review workflows.
• scheduled-monitor - Run Patent Watch Monitor on a daily or weekly schedule with tight caps.
• schema-and-billing-preflight - Validate output shape and PPE event names before live setup.

FAQ

Does this actor make live Apify changes?

No. The local package does not push, publish, create tasks, write live pricing, or upload live icons. Those cloud steps are intentionally deferred.

Can I use this with live URLs?

Yes, set fetchUrls to true and provide records with sourceUrl, but the default path is fixture-only so local validation is deterministic and cheap.

Why does it charge before pushing output?

Pay-per-event actors must charge before paid output is written. Local runs bypass PPE so tests and smoke checks do not require cloud billing.

What happens on charge limits?

The actor stops gracefully and writes a summary instead of pushing unpaid result rows.

Is this legal, financial, safety, or compliance advice?

No. The actor produces operational signals and structured data for review. Human owners remain responsible for decisions.

Troubleshooting

• If the dataset is empty, check that maxItems is greater than zero and that records are supplied or defaults are enabled.
• If a record is flagged unexpectedly, inspect issueCodes, matchedKeywords, and the normalized metadata preview.
• If live fetching fails, rerun with supplied record bodies or snapshots and keep fetchUrls false.

Limitations

This actor only sees the records, snapshots, or URLs supplied to it. It does not guarantee complete public-source coverage, private-source access, or all edge-case parsing. Browser and proxy flows are not used by default.

Source And Safety Notes

The default fixtures are synthetic and safe for local QA. When connecting public sources, use official or permissioned endpoints where possible and avoid sensitive personal data. Do not use the output as a substitute for professional advice.

Changelog

• 2026-07-02: Initial local-first actor package with schemas, fixture tests, pricing source, icon registration, and cloud-deferred QA evidence.