Chemistry Comes to Edge

Edge now supports chemical formulas with more to come

Ho, ho, ho! Just because it’s Christmas season doesn’t mean we don’t ship at Edge; it just means this week’s updates come wrapped like a present on a sleigh (and, perhaps, with reindeer named after CPC classification schemes!).

This week, we are announcing the launch of chemical formula support. We already support special input types like mathematical formulas via LaTeX. And now we support chemistry. Chemical formulas are essential for patents that involve chemical composition of matter, Markush groups, most pharmaceuticals, and more. And we have heard from many chemistry-minded patent practitioners of the difficulties they have had transferring chemical drawings into patent applications.

Now, it is easier than ever. Here is how it works:

1. Get the chemical formula you want to import. The easiest way to do this is to draw as you normally would in an editor like ChemDraw and then export the drawing.

2. Formats: Edge supports codes in SMILES, MOL, and MOL3000.

3. Paste the code in a new paragraph.

4. Highlight the code and click the Benzene ring. Edge will automatically detect whether the code is a SMILES, MOL, or MOL3000 and render appropriately on its own; no need to specify.

5. You will see a preview of the chemical drawing. Please note that the tool will only render valid chemical formulas. If you want to change the chemical that is displayed, you can change the code, but not the drawing, which is rendered by the code. You also cannot change the code type, for example from SMILES to MOL3000. If you want to change the rendering type, cancel the drawing and paste a new drawing in.

6. Press “accept” and your chemical drawing will be entered!

That’s it! By using the chemical drawing function, Edge will also know about the chemical, which it uses to write better text.

As an additional added benefit, Edge also automatically manages the exporting of the chemical formula in a patent application in an accurate fashion. Just like with mathematical formulas, we will export your chemical formulas in the format USPTO expects.

In addition to this new feature, this week we also improved the performance of our Editor in the Safari Browser, fixing 7 minor bugs. We still recommend using Edge in Google Chrome, but the Safari experience should be greatly improved.

We wish you a restful final week of 2023. We expect to kick off 2024 with yet more exciting features.

Happy holidays!