Message-ID: <960701103454_425263966@emout16.mail.aol.com> Date: Mon, 1 Jul 1996 10:34:55 -0400 From: Mike Mychajlonka <mailto:StrutInst@AOL.COM> Subject: Re: Warnig ayahuasca patented! To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
DATE: July 1, 1996 TO: Juan Martinez Borrero (mailto:samperec@ECUA.NET.ec) FROM: Mike Mychajlonka (mailto:strutinst@aol.com) RE: AyahuascaI know of no patent law or international convention which does NOT require that intellectual property for which a patent is granted be a novel extension of the art which is not obvious to someone skilled in the subject. If the beverage ayahuasca has been well-known for over ten thousand years then a patent challenge based upon such demonstrated "prior art" should be successful. On the other hand, if the International Medicine Corporation has modified the formulation used by the indigenous peoples of the Amazon and patented their modification, then their claim to patentability may be upheld based upon this component of "novelty." For example, I know of no person or organization who holds a patent on the concept of the wheel, yet, patents concerned with rotary bearings are numerous indeed.
I think that your first step is to prepare a report comparing the patent claimed by the International Medicine Corporation with the common knowledge of indigenous peoples. I would send this report first to the patent granting agency involved and request that the patent be set aside (cancelled) on the basis of the prior art documented in your report. I would then send copies of your report to all of the worldwide patent agencies to alert them to the alleged unscrupulous dealings of the International Medicine Corporation and to go on record with the request that they not honor (through whatever reciprocal recognition agreements they might be party to) a patent that is under challenge.
Unfortunately, an invalid patent may stand in the absence of effective challenge. For example, in 1765 Abbe Lazzarro Spallanzani found and published, in a series of experiments concerned with the question of spontaneous generation, that beef broth which had been boiled for one hour in a sealed flask did not spoil. Yet, in 1810, Nicholas Appert was granted a patent for processing meats in glass bottles that had been kept in boiling water for various intervals.
You must take appropriate action. Now.