diff --git a/src/frontend/inpcom.c b/src/frontend/inpcom.c
index 1ea5f51e9..99722e7df 100644
--- a/src/frontend/inpcom.c
+++ b/src/frontend/inpcom.c
@@ -9455,9 +9455,9 @@ static int inp_poly_2g6_compat(struct card* deck) {
         case 'g':
         case 'e':
         case 'f':
-            curr_line = nexttok(curr_line);
-            curr_line = nexttok(curr_line);
-            curr_line = nexttok(curr_line);
+            curr_line = nexttok_noparens(curr_line);
+            curr_line = nexttok_noparens(curr_line);
+            curr_line = nexttok_noparens(curr_line);
             /* exclude all of the following fourth tokens */
             if (ciprefix("poly", curr_line))
                 continue;
@@ -9488,8 +9488,8 @@ static int inp_poly_2g6_compat(struct card* deck) {
         switch (*thisline) {
         case 'g':
         case 'e':
-            curr_line = nexttok(curr_line);
-            curr_line = nexttok(curr_line);
+            curr_line = nexttok_noparens(curr_line);
+            curr_line = nexttok_noparens(curr_line);
             if (!curr_line) {
                 fprintf(stderr, "Error: not enough parameters in line\n   %s\n", thisline);
                 fprintf(stderr, "No circuit loaded!\n");
diff --git a/src/include/ngspice/ngspice.h b/src/include/ngspice/ngspice.h
index 0b4f6e710..74535553e 100644
--- a/src/include/ngspice/ngspice.h
+++ b/src/include/ngspice/ngspice.h
@@ -253,6 +253,7 @@ extern char *gettok_noparens(char **s);
 extern char *gettok_node(char **s);
 extern char *gettok_iv(char **s);
 extern char *nexttok(const char *s);
+extern char *nexttok_noparens(const char *s);
 extern char *gettok_model(char **s);
 extern int get_l_paren(char **s);
 extern int get_r_paren(char **s);
diff --git a/src/misc/string.c b/src/misc/string.c
index e69ff9173..7e20daf10 100644
--- a/src/misc/string.c
+++ b/src/misc/string.c
@@ -450,6 +450,40 @@ nexttok(const char *s)
     return (char *) s;
 }
 
+/*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
+ * nexttok skips over whitespaces and the next token in s
+ *   returns NULL if there is nothing left to skip.
+ * It replaces constructs like txfree(gettok(&actstring)) by
+ * actstring = nexttok(actstring). This is derived from the gettok_noparens version.
+ * It acts like gettok, except that it treats parens and commas like
+ * whitespace.
+ *-------------------------------------------------------------------------*/
+
+char*
+nexttok_noparens(const char* s)
+{
+    if (!s)
+        return NULL;
+    int paren = 0;
+
+    s = skip_ws(s);
+    if (!*s)
+        return NULL;
+
+    for (; *s && !isspace_c(*s); s++)
+        if (*s == '(')
+            break;
+        else if (*s == ')')
+            break;
+        else if (*s == ',')
+            break;
+
+    while (isspace_c(*s) || *s == ',' || *s == '(' || *s == ')')
+        s++;
+
+    return (char*)s;
+}
+
 
 /*-------------------------------------------------------------------------*
  * gettok skips over whitespaces or '=' and returns the next token found,