Chemical Structure Search

October 13, 2016

Launched on October 3, 2016, the new chemical structure search feature allows users to search for chemical information in patent documents in PATENTSCOPE.

The idea of the chemical structure search is to offer a search feature that:

• recognizes the names of chemical compounds in patent texts;
• recognizes their structure from embedded drawings in patent texts.

The chemical search applies to the title, abstract, claim and description fields. It only works on developed formulas.

It is currently available for published PCT applications in English and German (from 1978), and the national collection of the U.S. (from 1979). It will become available for other languages and collections in the future.

How to use chemical structure search

There are 3 options to use the chemical search:

1. Upload a structure allows users to upload a chemical description file in a supported format (for example MOL; SMILES; bitmap representations of the chemical compound such as png, gif, tiff, jpeg);
2. Convert a structure allows users to select the input type of the search such as the name of the chemical compound: commercial name, CAS name, trivial name (all handled in an equal manner); the international NonProprietary Name, InCHI, InchIkey or SMILES;
3. Structure editor allows users to draw or edit a structure. Chemical structures, reactions and fragments can be drawn in a very intuitive way using the symbols familiar from chemical sketches on paper

Accessing chemical structure search

To use the chemical structure search, users have to log in using their PATENTSCOPE account. A PATENTSCOPE account can be created free of charge. A user's  is available in the Help menu under "How to search".