Use Scatter's data in your own tools.

Every answer is JSON, and every error is {"error": "..."} with the HTTP status; a 429 also carries retryAfterSeconds, the seconds to wait. Fields may be added within v1, so ignore any field you do not recognise. Everything below is at https://www.scatter-ip.com.

A family query may contain slashes as typed, for example US17/106,694. In an application path, a slash must be percent-encoded (US17%2F106%2C694) or left out (US17106694).

The examples use the family of EP1000000. The ones labelled abbreviated show part of an answer, and the values in the prosecution and cited document examples are made up to show the shape.

Each examination report and each document of a reply in the prosecution answer has a pdfUrl, a Scatter address that serves the stored PDF (null where Scatter holds none). Fetch it with the same key, or open it in a browser signed in to Scatter. A report in the shared record redirects to its PDF; one you uploaded is streamed to you alone, and anyone else, signed in or not, gets a 404 as if it did not exist. The extracted text of a document is not served.

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/families/EP1000000

{
  "query": "EP1000000",
  "resolvedApplication": "EP99203729",
  "members": [
    {
      "office": "EP",
      "applicationNumber": "EP99203729",
      "applicationNumberDisplay": "EP99203729.1",
      "publicationNumber": "EP1000000B1",
      "publicationNumbers": ["EP1000000B1", "EP1000000A1"],
      "kind": "B1",
      "title": "Apparatus for manufacturing green bricks for the brick manufacturing industry",
      "applicant": "BOER BEHEER NIJMEGEN BV DE",
      "inventors": ["KOSMAN WILHELMUS JACOBUS MARIA"],
      "filingDate": "1999-11-08",
      "publicationDate": "2003-02-12",
      "grantDate": null,
      "priorities": [
        { "number": "NL1010536", "date": "1998-11-12" }
      ],
      "status": "granted",
      "statusLabel": "NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT",
      "statusDate": "2003-12-19",
      "legalStatus": "NO OPPOSITION FILED WITHIN TIME LIMIT",
      "termEnd": "2019-11-08",
      "nationalPhaseDeadline": null,
      "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP99203729"
    }
  ],
  "completeness": {
    "complete": true,
    "reasons": []
  },
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP99203729"
}

curl -X POST https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/families/EP1000000/fetch \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer scatter_..."

{
  "query": "EP1000000",
  "status": "in_progress",
  "message": "Scatter is reading this family's examination files: 1 of 2 applications done so far. Ask again in about 5 seconds to carry it on; nothing is repeated.",
  "members": [
    {
      "application": "EP99203729",
      "office": "EP",
      "phase": "reading-reports",
      "rounds": 3,
      "responses": 2
    },
    {
      "application": "US17106694",
      "office": "US",
      "phase": "complete",
      "rounds": 2,
      "responses": 1
    }
  ],
  "askAgainAfterSeconds": 5,
  "allowance": { "familiesUsedToday": 1, "familiesPerDay": 10 },
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP99203729"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/applications/EP99203729/prosecution

{
  "application": "EP99203729",
  "office": "EP",
  "loaded": true,
  "rounds": [
    {
      "id": 12,
      "roundNumber": 1,
      "reportType": "Communication pursuant to Article 94(3) EPC",
      "mailingDate": "2001-05-14",
      "pdfUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/documents/report/12",
      "objections": [
        {
          "id": 31,
          "type": "novelty",
          "typeLabel": "Novelty",
          "claims": ["1", "2"],
          "text": "Claim 1 is not new over D1.",
          "citations": [
            {
              "referenceId": "EP 0 456 789 A1",
              "referenceType": "patent",
              "label": "D1",
              "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0456789A1/en"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "extraction": "complete"
    }
  ],
  "responses": [
    {
      "id": 5,
      "kind": "response",
      "label": "Reply to communication from the Examining Division",
      "date": "2001-09-20",
      "precedingRoundNumber": 1,
      "documents": [
        {
          "label": "Arguments",
          "componentKind": "arguments",
          "pdfUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/documents/reply/31"
        },
        { "label": "Claims", "componentKind": "claims", "pdfUrl": null }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP99203729?view=prosecution"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/documents/report/12

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/documents/reply/12

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/applications/EP99203729/cited-documents

{
  "application": "EP99203729",
  "documents": [
    {
      "referenceId": "EP 0 456 789 A1",
      "referenceType": "patent",
      "labels": ["D1"],
      "title": null,
      "whereCited": ["objection", "search"],
      "objectedInRounds": [1],
      "url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/EP0456789A1/en"
    }
  ],
  "loaded": true,
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP99203729?view=prosecution"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/publications/EP1000000B1/legal-history

{
  "publication": "EP1000000B1",
  "events": [
    {
      "date": "2002-09-03",
      "office": "EP",
      "code": "INTG",
      "description": "INTENTION TO GRANT ANNOUNCED"
    },
    {
      "date": "2003-12-19",
      "office": "EP",
      "code": "26N",
      "description": "NO OPPOSITION FILED"
    }
  ],
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP1000000B1"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/publications/EP1000000B1/bibliographic

{
  "publication": "EP1000000B1",
  "office": "EP",
  "applicationNumber": "EP99203729",
  "applicationNumberDisplay": "EP99203729.1",
  "publicationNumbers": ["EP1000000B1", "EP1000000A1"],
  "kind": "B1",
  "title": "Apparatus for manufacturing green bricks for the brick manufacturing industry",
  "applicant": "BOER BEHEER NIJMEGEN BV DE",
  "inventors": ["KOSMAN WILHELMUS JACOBUS MARIA"],
  "filingDate": "1999-11-08",
  "publicationDate": "2003-02-12",
  "grantDate": null,
  "priorities": [
    { "number": "NL1010536", "date": "1998-11-12" }
  ],
  "agent": {
    "availability": "on_record",
    "message": null,
    "firm": "Example & Co",
    "practitioners": [],
    "address": "1 Example Street, London",
    "source": "EPO Register"
  },
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP1000000B1"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/publications/EP1000000B1/ep-validations

{
  "publication": "EP1000000B1",
  "applicationNumber": "EP99203729",
  "registerRead": true,
  "validations": [
    {
      "state": "GB",
      "stateName": "United Kingdom",
      "status": "in_force",
      "latestEventDate": "2003-05-02",
      "latestEvent": "GB: TRANSLATION OF EP PATENT FILED"
    },
    {
      "state": "FR",
      "stateName": "France",
      "status": "lapsed",
      "latestEventDate": "2010-01-01",
      "latestEvent": "Lapsed in this state (European Patent Register)"
    }
  ],
  "noValidationsReason": null,
  "validationEventCount": 2,
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP1000000B1"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/publications/EP1000000B1/claims

{
  "publication": "EP1000000B1",
  "claimSet": "published",
  "kind": "B1",
  "language": "en",
  "source": "epo-ops",
  "machineTranslated": false,
  "date": "2003-02-12",
  "claims": [
    {
      "number": 1,
      "text": "An apparatus for manufacturing green bricks, comprising a press and a conveyor."
    },
    {
      "number": 2,
      "text": "The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the conveyor is heated."
    }
  ],
  "scatterUrl": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/family/EP1000000B1"
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer scatter_..."

{
  "anonymous": false,
  "user": { "email": "you@example.com" },
  "key": { "name": "Docketing system", "createdAt": "2026-10-15T01:23:45.000Z" }
}

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/openapi.json

A key is optional for reading. A request without one reads the shared data, which is what a signed-out visitor sees. A key identifies the caller, raises the rate limits below and adds that account's own uploads: the examination reports you uploaded yourself, which no other caller sees. A browser signed in to Scatter is read as its account in the same way, as if it had sent a key.

Sign in, then make a key on the Account page. It is shown once, so copy it then. A key begins with scatter_ and can be revoked from the same page. Send it as a bearer token:

curl https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/v1/me \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer scatter_..."

A key that is sent and is not valid, or has been revoked, is refused with 401, or with 429 once the address has spent its allowance for requests without a key, because a refused key is charged to that allowance. It is not treated as if no key had been sent, so a mistyped key shows up at once. A key acts as you, so keep it out of shared code.

A key is required to fetch a family: /api/v1/families/{query}/fetch answers 401 without one. What a fetch retrieves is the shared record, the same data the site loads when a family is opened, so it is visible to everyone and not private to you.

Each number is the requests allowed in any one hour. A request with a key is counted for the key's owner, and a request without one for its network address. A refused request answers 429 with a Retry-After header giving the seconds to wait.

• Family lookups: /api/v1/families/{query}, /api/v1/publications/{publication}/legal-history, /api/v1/publications/{publication}/bibliographic, /api/v1/publications/{publication}/ep-validations and /api/v1/publications/{publication}/claims. A family Scatter has not read recently is read from the EPO, and so is each publication request, which is why this is the smallest budget.
• Document downloads: /api/v1/documents/report/{id} and /api/v1/documents/reply/{id}. Each call reads one stored PDF.
• Fetch calls: /api/v1/families/{query}/fetch. Each call carries a fetch one step forward, and a family takes several. Separately, each person may start 10 new families per day, however many calls carry them.
• Stored reads: /api/v1/applications/{application}/prosecution, /api/v1/applications/{application}/cited-documents and /api/v1/me. These read only Scatter's own tables.
• Connector tool calls: /api/mcp. Each tool call counts. Setting up and listing the tools do not. search_family also counts toward family lookups.

The OpenAPI document is not limited, but a key sent with it that is not valid is charged to the Stored reads allowance for requests without a key.

Scatter works as a connector for assistants that support the Model Context Protocol. To add it to Claude, Cursor or VS Code, follow Use Scatter with Claude: the address to add is https://www.scatter-ip.com/mcp, which opens a Scatter sign-in the first time.

For use without signing in, for example from a script, the address is https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/mcp. Reading does not need an account there, and a key is optional.

claude.ai and Claude Desktop

Open Settings, Connectors, Add custom connector. Paste https://www.scatter-ip.com/mcp and approve the Scatter sign-in. To use the no-sign-in address above instead, leave the OAuth fields empty. At that address claude.ai and Claude Desktop reach the connector from Anthropic's servers and cannot send a key yet, so everyone using it there shares one allowance, at the limits for a request without a key.

Claude Code

Run this once:

claude mcp add --transport http scatter https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/mcp

To send a key, run this instead:

claude mcp add --transport http scatter https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/mcp \
  --header "Authorization: Bearer scatter_..."

Cursor

Add an entry to mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scatter": { "url": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/mcp" }
  }
}

To send a key, add a headers entry beside the address:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "scatter": {
      "url": "https://www.scatter-ip.com/api/mcp",
      "headers": { "Authorization": "Bearer scatter_..." }
    }
  }
}

The tools

• search_family The members of a patent family, with each member's status and term end.
• get_prosecution An application's examination reports with their objections, and the applicant's replies.
• get_cited_documents The documents cited against an application, and where each appears on the record.
• get_legal_history The legal events recorded for a publication, as the office wrote them.
• get_bibliographic A publication's applicant, inventors, dates, priorities and, where Scatter can read it, the agent of record.
• get_ep_validations For a granted EP patent, the states where it is in force or has lapsed.
• get_published_claims The claims as published in a publication, not as amended during prosecution.
• fetch_family Has Scatter read the examination reports of a family it has not read yet. It needs a signed-in connection and counts against a daily limit.

Scatter serves its own extracted structure. It links to Scatter's family pages and, for a cited document, to a Google Patents page or a DOI, arXiv or Google Scholar link; the offices' documents themselves (source PDFs, the full text of a report or a reply, cited-document PDFs) are not part of any answer. An objection is served as Scatter extracted it. The four publication endpoints (bibliographic data, legal history, EP validations and published claims) are live reads of public register data, not extraction; the published claims of a publication are the one place claim text is served, read from the EPO or, where the EPO holds none, from Google Patents.

• Read only, with one exception, and reading needs no account. Every endpoint but one only reads what Scatter holds; a family request reads the family from the European Patent Office when Scatter has not read it recently. The one exception is POST /api/v1/families/{query}/fetch, which a caller holding a personal key can use to have Scatter retrieve and read the examination reports of a family it has not read yet. That is paid work: it is limited to 10 new families per person per UTC day (a family counts once however many calls carry it), it is refused to anonymous callers, and it works in steps that the caller drives by asking again (see the operation).
• An application's examination reports are available once its family has been opened on Scatter, and only for the offices Scatter reads by itself: AU, EP, US, PCT/WO, NZ, JP, KR, CN, CA, BR, AR and FI. Until the family has been opened the prosecution endpoint answers loaded: false with empty lists and the cited-documents endpoint loaded: false with an empty list; the scatterUrl in the answer opens the family so that Scatter reads it. For an application of any other office Scatter reads nothing by itself: the only reports that appear are ones the person whose key is sent uploaded on Scatter, and they appear to that person alone.
• status is Scatter's classification from the office records Scatter holds, the same family data and rules the site's status pill starts from. It does not include the fresh register status the site reads after a page loads, and it does not mark an application as under examination because Scatter holds an examination report for it.
• termEnd is the end of the term counted from the filing or priority dates Scatter holds. It excludes US patent term adjustment and terminal disclaimers. For a PCT application the date is nationalPhaseDeadline, the 30-month national phase deadline, and termEnd is null.
• A cited document has a link where Scatter can build one: a patent's page on Google Patents, or, for non-patent literature, a DOI or arXiv link or a Google Scholar search. Otherwise url is null. Scatter's own links go to the family page.

The OpenAPI 3.1 description is at /api/v1/openapi.json. It is generated from the same schemas the answers are checked against, so it describes what the API returns. Point a client generator or an assistant at it.