Patent77 vs Patently

Patent77 searches public patent records for prior art from a plain-English description of an invention, then returns cited references and a knockout-risk read. Its engine breaks the description into claim-style elements, expands synonyms, iterates searches, examines candidate documents and scores relevant references. Searches query the live Google Patents record, including US and major international patent collections. Paid patentability reports add an element-by-reference map, a novelty and obviousness narrative, limitations and PDF export. Lookups by publication number are never billed. Patent77 offers a web app, JSON API and hosted MCP server with tools for prior-art search, patent lookup and patentability assessment. Anonymous API requests need no account, but are limited to 4 requests per minute, 20 per day and three references per search. The Free plan is free and includes 3 AI searches per month and the top 5 references. Pro costs $49 a month; Scale costs $199 a month. Patent77 says descriptions are account-scoped and not used to train models, shown to others or sold, while descriptions are sent to an AI provider for query planning and reference reading. It does not cover non-patent literature, unpublished applications in the 18-month publication window or collections outside its corpus, and it is not legal advice.

Patently is a web platform with patent tools and AI assistance for searching, drafting, prosecution, oppositions, licensing, and litigation. Search ranks patents by relevance and includes semantic search that feeds findings into other patent workflows without exports. Create uses the Onardo assistant to draft claims, figures, and descriptions from invention disclosures. Mine maps claims against standards and technical documents and can produce downloadable reports. Rate supports shared ratings and configurable projects for FTO, landscape, novelty, invalidity, and competitor work. License provides standard-essential patent data and analytics across 4G, 5G, Wi-Fi, and beyond. Teams can set custom project workflows, export to Word and Excel, and apply project-level permissions with ethical walls and confidentiality barriers. The Free plan is free for one user and individual use, including filtered asset search, Onardo chat, patent-family browsing, and asset-link sharing. Law Firm+ and Business+ use custom pricing; Enterprise pricing is according to requirements. The platform also lists IPMS integration on Law Firm+.