MADISON, WI USA (February 23, 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. 17/168,638 entitled “PSYCHEDELIC TREATMENT FOR HEADACHE DISORDERS”, which is currently assigned to Yale University and The United States of America as represented by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The submission consisted of 5 prior art documents that are material to the patentability of the application’s 29 claims.
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 February 5, 2021 and claiming priority to a provisional application filed on February 5, 2020, describes acute and long-term prevention and treatment of headache disorders, including migraine and cluster headaches, using psychedelics. More broadly, drugs claimed as potential innovative treatments in this application were psilocybin, LSD, mescaline, DMT, DOI, and DOB; and the application includes claims regarding treatment method, psychedelic drug dose, and dose regimen.
Prior art included in the third-party preissuance submission consists of 5 peer reviewed articles published in scientific journals that establish the existence of all claimed methods and technologies in the public domain. The prior art documents address overly broad claims that have been well established in the public domain and, if improperly granted, risks inhibiting access to psychedelic research, treatment, product development, and funding. These claims include using psychedelics, specifically psilocybin, in either single or multiple doses, to reduce headache burden and/or frequency.
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.