---
title: "Resolve a company or inventor name to an entity id"
method: GET
path: "/v1/entities/search"
tags: ["patent status"]
---

# Resolve a company or inventor name to an entity id

`GET /v1/entities/search`

## Request

- Base URL: `https://api.patentdata.ai`
- URL: `https://api.patentdata.ai/v1/entities/search`
- Auth: one of:
  - API key in header `X-API-KEY`
  - HTTP bearer

Answers: which entity is 'Impossible Foods' (or any assignee / inventor name) in the USPTO record, and what are its known name variants. Start here before /v1/entities/{id}/applications, /v1/assignments?assignee=, or /v1/ptab?patent_owner=. Results are ranked (prefix matches first) and include `aliases`, `location`, and `counts` {applications, patents, pending}. A company printed under several names is one row with a `fam_...` family id and `members`; a family id is accepted wherever an entity id is. `type` filters to assignee or inventor. Costs 1 unit per 100 rows.

## Query parameters

- `q` string, required: Name to resolve; punctuation, case and corporate suffixes are ignored.
- `type` string, nullable: assignee or inventor.
- `limit` integer

## Response `200`

Successful Response

- unknown

## Other responses

- `422`: Validation Error

---

[API](https://skmtc.dev/patentdata/apis/patent-status-api.md) · [All operations](https://skmtc.dev/patentdata/apis/patent-status-api/llms.txt) · [OpenAPI document](https://skmtc.dev/patentdata/apis/patent-status-api/revisions/320133a82b42?raw)