All Claims Rejected for CaaMTech Inc. U.S. Application 17/095,430 Describing Combinations of Serotonergic Drugs

MADISON, WI USA (May 23, 2023) CaaMTech Inc. has today received a final rejection from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 17/095,430 entitled “COMPOSITIONS AND METHODS COMPRISING A COMBINATION OF SEROTONERGIC DRUGS”. On November 11, 2021, Porta Sophia filed a third-party preissuance submission that challenged the patentability of the application's claims on the grounds that the claims lack novelty and are obvious to someone skilled in the art.

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, innovators, and the public alike to explore the scope of psychedelic technologies.

CaaMTech cancels original broad claims and files narrower claims

The ’430 application was filed on November 11, 2020, and claims priority to a provisional application filed on February 9, 2017. The application’s 18 original claims described combinations of serotonergic drug combinations, including the well documented combination of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA). On December 14, 2021, within a month of Porta Sophia’s third-party preissuance submission and without any action from the USPTO, CaaMTech cancelled all 18 original claims and filed 14 new claims that were comparatively narrower in scope. No claims regarding the use of LSD in combination with MDMA were included in the new claims.

Read Porta Sophia’s third-party preissuance submission claims chart and corresponding prior art available here.

USPTO rejects refiled claims

On November 7, 2022, the USPTO rejected 13 of the 14 refiled claims on the grounds that they would have been obvious to someone skilled in the art. In response, CaaMTech filed 12 amended claims on March 6, 2023, that further narrowed the scope of the application. CaaMTech also argued that the claims were not obvious because of unpredictability within the field. The USPTO examiner filed a final rejection against these amended claims, again based on obviousness, but also, in view of the lack of data in the application, countering that “...if the art combining psilocybin and an SSRI for the treatment of depression were so fraught with uncertainty as alleged by Applicant, the Examiner would have rejected Applicant’s claims as lacking enablement as he provides no objective evidence in the as filed disclosure that a composition comprising a psilocybin and an SSRI has therapeutic efficacy in the treatment of depression.”

Third-party submissions of prior art 

The America Invents Act allows third parties to submit prior art and concise descriptions of their relevance to the USPTO. This ensures that submitted documents will be considered in the examination of associated patent applications. In addition, these submissions have a broad impact because applicants have a duty to disclose the submitted prior art for other relevant patent applications filed by the applicant. 

Porta Sophia tracks and analyzes psychedelic patent applications globally. If an application improperly claims innovation of something known in the public domain and meets the standards of Porta Sophia's third-party intervention evaluation criteria, the team assembles evidence against these invalid claims and contests them directly to the relevant patent office through third-party interventions.