MADISON, WI USA (January 7, 2025) The Psychedelic Bar Association (PBA) in collaboration with Porta Sophia today has published “Psychedelic Patents: Ethical Lapses.” This publication brings to the forefront the ethical duties attorneys and agents have when representing their clients to the USPTO and how failure to meet these standards compromises the patenting system and harms Indigenous communities.
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.
The Publication: High-Threat Patents: The Consequences of Inadequate Prior Art Research When Attorneys Fail to Acknowledge Traditional Psychedelic Uses
The piece (found here on the PBA blog) presents a call to action for IP attorneys operating in the psychedelic sector to conduct comprehensive prior art due diligence to ensure the integrity of the patent system and protect the rights of indigenous communities, which have long histories of traditional use of psychedelics. The USPTO’s Rules for Professional Conduct, including those related to candor and truthfulness, competence and thoroughness, diligence, failure to disclose prior art, and misleading the USPTO, ensure attorneys and agents adhere to high ethical standards when representing clients in patent matters. Failure to meet these standards can lead to ethical violations that not only undermine the patenting process but also contribute to acts of biopiracy that erase Indigenous history and thereby expand the impact of colonialism.
About Porta Sophia
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.
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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.