MADISON, WI USA (March 10, 2023) Porta Sophia filed a third party observation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) today for the international patent application PCT/US2022/031423 entitled “Mescaline for the Treatment of Substance Use Disorders”, which is currently assigned to Journey Colab Corp. The submission consisted of 24 prior art documents that are material to the patentability of all 80 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.
Porta Sophia also tracks and analyzes patent applications. If an application improperly claims innovation of something known in the public domain and meets all the standards of Porta Sophia's third party observation evaluation criteria, the team assembles evidence against these invalid claims and contests them directly to the WIPO through third party observations.
International application PCT/US2022/031423 was filed on May 27, 2022 and claims priority to U.S. provisional applications filed between May 28, 2021 and May 25, 2022. It describes a method of treating substance use disorder via oral administration of synthetic mescaline accompanied by therapy session(s). Claims relate to the purity of synthetic mescaline, broad dosage and frequency ranges, psychological and physiological monitoring techniques, and individual and/or group therapy.
Prior art in the third party observation included publications from peer reviewed journals, web pages and international patent documents. Notably, a journal publication from the 1970s describing a treatment program for alcohol use disorder utilizing mescaline ingestion sessions and therapy through the Native America Church anticipates claims regarding “mescaline treatment holiday” described in the ‘031423 application. A full claims chart and corresponding prior art are available here.
WIPO Patent Cooperation Treaty guidelines allow third parties to submit prior art and concise descriptions of their relevance to the WIPO. 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 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.