Google Patents Weekly Watch to Google Sheets (n8n + Apify)

Automatically track new Google Patents—and log them into Google Sheets every week

This n8n workflow runs a Google Patents Weekly Watch every Monday and appends one row per patent to your chosen Google Sheets tab. You’ll capture publication details, assignees, dates, abstracts, and a direct patent link—no ongoing IP watch subscription needed.

What this workflow does

• Weekly scheduled runs: Executes every Monday morning.
• Loads your watch settings: Reads your patent watch list, optional assignee, target country, and a configurable lookback window (lookbackDays).
• Search per watch term: Splits the watch list so each term triggers its own Google Patents search.
• Queries via Apify: Uses the Apify actor johnvc/google-patents-api to fetch recent publications within the lookback window.
• Skips empty results: If a search returns no patents, it won’t write blank rows.
• Flattens results into sheet-ready rows: Outputs one spreadsheet row per patent, including title, assignee, inventor, publication and filing dates, abstract, and a link to the patent.
• Appends to Google Sheets: Adds the rows to your selected spreadsheet and sheet/tab.

Use cases

• Track competitor patent activity by assignee and keyword in a continuously growing Google Sheets database.
• Monitor a specific technology area by maintaining a watch term list and reviewing weekly patent abstracts.
• Support SaaS product strategy or engineering planning with lightweight, automated patent intelligence.

Technical details

• n8n workflow using nodes such as Set, Code, Filter, and Split Out.
• Apify integration with an Apify account and API token credential.
• Google Sheets integration to append rows to a chosen tab.
• No per-seat IP watch service; watch terms run via Apify (free tier available; watch terms cost about 4 cents per week per term).