New Database Seeks to Prevent “Bad” Psychedelic Patents
CANNANNEW REPORT

Lucid News reports The nonprofit Porta Sophia has been providing a needed stop-gap to help improve the existing patent approval process. Porta Sophia is building an online database and searchable library of historical, scientific and cultural information pertaining to psychedelics that they say will support the work of both innovators and patent examiners to prevent problematic, or “bad,” patents from being granted in the first place. Opening a Doorway to Psychedelic Prior Art Porta Sophia, which means doorway to wisdom, was founded in late 2020 when patent attorney David Casimir and long-time colleague Bill Linton, co-founder of the nonprofit medical research organization Usona Institute, began discussing new patents being granted in the psychedelic space. “There were some patents issuing from the patent office that seemed inappropriate,” Casimir says. “And when I dug a little bit deeper, it was clear what was happening.” Among other requirements, in order for a patent to be granted by the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (USPTO) the invention or technology must be novel, non-obvious and offer utility to society. The bulk of a patent examiner’s work is verifying if these criteria are being met, which they do by searching for peer reviewed literature, existing patents, and other sources of information that point to previous public knowledge of the technology or invention, or similar innovations. This body of knowledge in patent law is called “prior art.” When it comes to the history, science and culture of psychedelics, prior art is not well known or easily accessed by patent reviewers. “Without appreciating the full scope and content of the prior art a patent examiner quite simply cannot properly do their job,” says Graham Pechenik, patent attorney and founder of Calyx Law. When Casimir and Linton looked more closely at these inappropriate patents, it became clear that the inaccessibility of information…

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Source : New Database Seeks to Prevent “Bad” Psychedelic Patents

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