tlo.mit.edu APItlo.mit.edu ↗
Access MIT Technology Licensing Office listings via API. Search technologies by keyword, area, and license status. Retrieve full descriptions, case numbers, and researchers.
curl -X GET 'https://api.parse.bot/scraper/582f973e-da78-4a2c-a848-a5a49ffa91ae/search_technologies' \ -H 'X-API-Key: $PARSE_API_KEY'
Search and list available technologies from MIT TLO. Returns paginated results with technology summaries including title, case number, researchers, technology areas, and impact areas. Supports filtering by search query, license status, technology area, and impact area. Returns 20 results per page.
| Param | Type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| page | integer | Zero-based page number for pagination. |
| query | string | Full-text search query to filter technologies (e.g. 'robotics', 'machine learning'). |
| impact_area | string | Comma-separated numeric taxonomy IDs for impact area filters. IDs can be found in the facet_counts of the response. |
| license_status | string | Comma-separated license status codes to filter by. Accepts: U (Unlicensed), EL (Exclusively Licensed), NEL (Non-Exclusively Licensed). Example: 'U' or 'U,EL'. |
| technology_area | string | Comma-separated numeric taxonomy IDs for technology area filters. IDs can be found in the facet_counts of the response. |
{
"type": "object",
"fields": {
"page": "integer",
"query": "string",
"results": "array of technology summary objects",
"facet_counts": "object mapping facet labels to counts, or null",
"result_count": "integer - number of results on current page"
},
"sample": {
"page": 0,
"query": "robotics",
"results": [
{
"url": "https://tlo.mit.edu/industry-entrepreneurs/available-technologies/regenerative-bioreactor-ion-concentration-0",
"slug": "regenerative-bioreactor-ion-concentration-0",
"title": "Regenerative Bioreactor via Ion Concentration Polarization Waste Removal",
"case_number": "25819",
"researchers": "Jongyoon Han / Junghyo Yoon",
"impact_areas": [
"Healthy Living",
"Sustainable Future"
],
"invention_type": "Technology",
"license_action": "License",
"technology_areas": [
"Biotechnology",
"Drug Discovery and Research Tools"
]
}
],
"facet_counts": {
"Unlicensed": 94,
"Biotechnology": 38,
"Exclusively Licensed": 10,
"Non-Exclusively Licensed": 9,
"Industrial Engineering & Automation": 101
},
"result_count": 20
}
}About the tlo.mit.edu API
The MIT TLO API provides 2 endpoints to search and retrieve technology listings from MIT's Technology Licensing Office. The search_technologies endpoint returns paginated summaries across 20 results per page, including title, case number, researcher names, technology areas, and impact areas. The get_technology endpoint delivers full descriptions, invention type, and taxonomy classifications for any individual listing identified by its URL slug.
What the API Returns
The search_technologies endpoint returns a page of up to 20 technology summaries from the MIT TLO available-technologies catalog. Each result includes a title, case_number, researchers array, technology_areas, and impact_areas. The response also carries facet_counts — a map of facet labels to integer counts — which you can inspect to discover valid numeric taxonomy IDs for the technology_area and impact_area filter parameters on subsequent requests.
Filtering and Pagination
Search accepts a query string for full-text filtering (e.g. 'crispr', 'photonics'). You can narrow results by license_status using comma-separated codes: U for Unlicensed, EL for Exclusively Licensed, and NEL for Non-Exclusively Licensed. Taxonomy filters use the numeric IDs found in facet_counts rather than human-readable names. Pagination is zero-based via the page parameter, and result_count tells you how many results came back on the current page.
Technology Detail
The get_technology endpoint accepts a slug — available from search result objects — and returns the full record: a long-form description, the case_number, invention_type (e.g. Technology, Software), and arrays for technology_areas and impact_areas when the source has them populated. The url field gives the canonical MIT TLO page for the record, useful for linking back or cross-referencing.
Coverage
The API covers publicly listed technologies on the MIT TLO available-technologies catalog. Records represent inventions that MIT is actively offering for licensing or partnership. Data freshness reflects the current state of the public catalog; technologies that have been removed or marked unavailable by MIT will no longer appear in search results.
- Build a licensing-opportunity tracker that alerts you when new unlicensed MIT technologies matching a keyword appear.
- Map MIT research output by querying
technology_areasfacet counts across the full catalog. - Populate an internal database of life-sciences IP by filtering on relevant
impact_areataxonomy IDs. - Generate researcher publication and invention profiles by aggregating
researchersfields across multiple search results. - Compare available software inventions (
invention_type: Software) against hardware technologies in a side-by-side tool. - Feed a due-diligence pipeline with
case_numberanddescriptionfields for prospective licensees evaluating MIT IP. - Audit licensing status distribution across the catalog using
license_statusfilter codes andfacet_countsdata.
| Tier | Price | Credits/month | Rate limit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0/mo | 100 | 5 req/min |
| Hobby | $30/mo | 1,000 | 20 req/min |
| Developer | $100/mo | 5,000 | 250 req/min |
One credit = one API call regardless of which marketplace API you call. Exceeding the rate limit returns a 429 response. Authenticate with the X-API-Key header.
Does MIT TLO provide an official developer API for its technology listings?+
How do I find valid values for the `technology_area` and `impact_area` filter parameters?+
search_technologies without those filters — the response includes a facet_counts object that maps human-readable facet labels to their counts. The numeric taxonomy IDs embedded in those keys are what you pass to technology_area and impact_area. You can pass multiple IDs as a comma-separated string.Does the API return contact information for MIT licensing managers or TLO staff?+
researchers (the inventors), case_number, and description, but does not expose TLO licensing manager names, email addresses, or direct contact fields. You can fork this API on Parse and revise it to add an endpoint that extracts contact details if they appear on individual technology pages.Are technologies that have already been licensed still returned by the search endpoint?+
license_status parameter accepts EL (Exclusively Licensed) and NEL (Non-Exclusively Licensed) codes alongside U (Unlicensed), so licensed technologies can appear in results. Pass only U if you want to restrict results to unlicensed opportunities.