MADISON, WI USA (November 24, 2025) Porta Sophia filed a third-party preissuance submissions with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today for U.S. Pat. App. Ser. No. 18/850,394 entitled “TREATMENT OF MENTAL DISORDERS”, which is currently assigned to GH RESEARCH IRELAND LIMITED. The submissions consisted of 10 prior art documents that are material to the patentability of all 32 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 relevant historical documentation readily available for anyone wanting to explore the scope of psychedelic technologies, including patent examiners.
Patent application: 5-MeO-DMT for treatment of Postpartum Depression (PPD)
The ’394 application was filed on September 24, 2024. It claims methods of treating PPD with 5-MeO-DMT administered via inhalation or by nasal, buccal or sublingual administration. The application also includes treatment-resistant cases. The application also covers measurements of baseline severity defined and evidence of reduced maternal functioning (e.g., BIMF). Dosing may involve a single administration or a titrated series, with subsequent doses escalated until a peak psychedelic experience. Efficacy is evaluated by rapid improvement on global clinical measures (e.g., CGI-S) shortly after dosing and around the following day. The claims also cover known breastfeeding guidance and improvement in maternal functioning.
Prior art in the third-party preissuance submission included U.S. and international patent documents and a peer reviewed journal article. This prior art anticipates claims in the ’394 application. The full third-party submission documentation is available here
Third-party submissions of prior art
United States patent law allows third parties to submit prior art and concise descriptions of their relevance to the USPTO. Documents submitted may 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 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.
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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, Wisconsin 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.
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 learn more about Porta Sophia's patent and prior art workflow or get involved, visit www.portasophia.org.