# What Claude (Anthropic) with web search answered for patent-search services (startups) on 2026-09-07

## In short

On 2026-09-07, Claude (Anthropic) with web search was asked "best patent-search services for startups". It named 19 brands, in this order: AI, Google Patents, Patents, PQAI, Espacenet, USPTO Trademark Search.

| Fact | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Question | best patent-search services for startups |
| Asked on | 2026-09-07 |
| Engine | Claude (Anthropic) with web search |
| Model | claude-opus-5 |
| Brands named | 19 |
| Sources cited | 15 |
| Audience | startups |
| Coverage | Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included. |
| Last verified | 2026-09-07 |

Page: https://bikoosh.com/answers/s/patent-search-services-startups-2026-09-07
Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.

## The answer, as recorded

Asked on 2026-09-07 through Claude (Anthropic) with web search (model claude-opus-5).

> Short version: for most startups the right answer is a free database for your own first pass, then a few hundred dollars to a professional search firm before you spend real money on filing. The $30k/year AI platforms are almost never worth it pre-Series B.
> 
> ## 1. Do it yourself first (free)
> 
> - **Google Patents** - the best starting point. Full-text across 100+ offices, machine translations, "similar documents," and it indexes non-patent literature (papers, some books). Fastest way to find out whether your idea is obviously already patented. Weaker on classification-based searching and non-English filings than the official databases. ([PQAI](https://projectpq.ai/5-free-and-possibly-more-efficient-alternatives-to-google-patents/))
> - **Espacenet** (EPO) - ~150M documents, the most comprehensive free source, with CPC classification, citation and patent-family search plus machine translation from 30+ languages. This is where you catch the CN/JP/KR/DE art Google surfaces poorly. ([Espacenet](https://worldwide.espacenet.com/), [PatSeer](https://www.patseer.com/free-and-paid-patent-databases-2026-complete-guide/))
> - **USPTO Patent Public Search** - official US source; proper Boolean and fi

## Brands named, in the order the engine gave

| Position | Brand | How it was named |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | AI | mentioned |
| 2 | Google Patents | mentioned |
| 3 | Patents | mentioned |
| 4 | PQAI | mentioned |
| 5 | Espacenet | mentioned |
| 6 | USPTO Trademark Search | mentioned |
| 7 | Lens.org | mentioned |
| 8 | Good Grants | mentioned |
| 9 | Cardinal Intellectual Property | mentioned |
| 10 | Ensemble IP | mentioned |
| 11 | Clarivate | mentioned |
| 12 | GreyB / Sagacious IP | mentioned |
| 13 | Sagacious IP | mentioned |
| 14 | IPRally | mentioned |
| 15 | Patlytics | mentioned |
| 16 | Solve Intelligence | mentioned |
| 17 | XLSCOUT | mentioned |
| 18 | PatSnap | mentioned |
| 19 | Questel Orbit | mentioned |

## Sources the engine cited

- https://projectpq.ai/5-free-and-possibly-more-efficient-alternatives-to-google-patents/ (other)
- https://worldwide.espacenet.com/ (vendor)
- https://www.patseer.com/free-and-paid-patent-databases-2026-complete-guide/ (other)
- https://www.uspto.gov/patents/search/patent-public-search (reference)
- https://www.cypris.ai/insights/patsnap-alternatives-8-tools-for-patent-research-intelligence (other)
- https://projectpq.ai/top-patent-search-apis-for-enterprises/ (other)
- https://menteso.com/blog/how-much-the-prior-art-search-cost/ (other)
- https://cardinal-ip.com/patent-search/ (other)
- https://ensembleip.com/ (vendor)
- https://clarivate.com/intellectual-property/landon-ip-is-clarivate/ (vendor)
- https://sagaciousresearch.com/prior-art-search (other)
- https://softwarefinder.com/legal/iprally (other)
- https://patentext.com/blog/solve-intelligence-vs-patlytics/ (other)
- https://g2.com/products/xlscout/pricing (review)
- https://wicely.com/resources/patent-monitoring-platform-comparison (other)

The question page: https://bikoosh.com/answers/q/patent-search-services/startups

Answer Watch records what one AI answer engine said on one date, nothing more. Each page names the engine and the model, carries the date the question was asked, and lists the brands that appeared in the answer in the order the engine gave them, with the sources it cited. It is a measurement, not a ranking, not a recommendation and not a claim about the world. Brands that did not appear in an answer are not named on any public page. Coverage: Claude (Anthropic) with web search. Other engines not included.