MADISON, WI USA (March 29, 2022) Porta Sophia today filed a third-party preissuance submission with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 17/231,553 entitled “TRANSDERMAL MICRO-DOSING DELIVERY OF PSYCHEDELICS DERIVATIVES”, which is currently assigned to the psychedelic drug company Pike Therapeutics Inc. The submission consisted of 23 prior art documents that are material to the patentability of all 22 claims of the application.
Porta Sophia, a non-profit psychedelic prior art library, leverages the experience of legal and interdisciplinary academic scholars to promote an ethical psychedelic patenting landscape that preserves the integrity of the public domain. The organization curates and makes readily available relevant historical documentation for patent examiners and the public alike to explore the scope of psychedelic technologies.
Porta Sophia also tracks and analyzes psychedelic patent applications. If an application improperly claims innovation of something known in the public domain, the team assembles evidence against these invalid claims and contests them directly to the USPTO through third-party preissuance submissions.
The application, filed on April 15, 2021 and claiming priority to provisional application filed on April 16, 2020, describes the transdermal microdosing of individual or combinations of psychedelic drugs for the treatment of mental disorders. The application includes claims relating to psychedelic indication, drug delivery, and dose regimen.
Prior art in the third-party preissuance submission included peer reviewed scientific journal publications, a comprehensive transdermal delivery methods book, domestic and foreign patent documents, and bioadhesives industry online articles. This prior art addresses overly broad claims that have been well established in the public domain and, if granted, risks inhibiting access to psychedelic research, treatment, product development, and funding. These claims include administering psychedelics such as psilocybin, psilocin, LSD, and/or ibogaine and their derivatives for the treatment of depression, addiction, end-of-life related psychological distress, and other neuropsychological disorders.
The America Invents Act allows third parties to submit prior art and concise descriptions of their relevance to the USPTO. This ensures that the documents submitted will be considered in the examination of that patent application. In addition, these submissions have a broad impact because applicants have a duty to disclose the prior art submitted against a single patent application for other relevant patent applications filed by the applicant.
Porta Sophia works to support equity in the psychedelic field. The organization facilitates community engagement through encouraging submissions of prior art from the public and organizing an interdisciplinary Archival Researcher Network (ARN) to ensure quality psychedelic prior art is readily available to patent applicants, examiners and those interested in psychedelic research.
To get involved or learn more, visit www.portasophia.org.
Porta Sophia, meaning doorway to wisdom, is a non-profit psychedelic prior art library created to support good patents in the field of psychedelics. Based in Madison, WI USA, Porta Sophia identifies scientific, historical and cultural prior art in common and uncommon spaces and brings it together in one simple search tool for innovators and patent reviewers. The organization’s mission is to protect the public domain, stimulate innovation, and support good patents to assure psychedelic therapies can one day be available at scale to the people who need them. To learn more, visit www.portasophia.org.