The Sheffield Generic Structures Projecta Retrospective Review

The problems posed by the requirements for storage and manipulation of generic chemical structure definitions in patents are reviewed. Chemists and patents agents have developed an armory of linguistic devices over many decades so that a generic structure description can describe large and often unlimited numbers of substances as a result of the combinatorial opportunities provided. The nature of these linguistic devices is defined, and the theoretical foundations devised during the Sheffield project for the successful solution of the problems in order to provide the desired retrieval facilities are reviewed. Progress toward the practical implementation of a system based on these solutions is evaluated. The relevance of the data structures and algorithms devised in this work to the issues raised by developments in combinatorial libraries is also reviewed.