One lawyer is shining his light on the dark underworld of psychedelic patents
Meet @calyxlaw(Graham Pechenik), the soft-spoken champion of psychedelic intellectual property
Before founding Calyx Law in 2016, Graham defended — and challenged — patents for over a decade
His work ranged from challenging Monsanto GMO patents to representing Pfizer & Google
But ever since college, his passion has been psychedelics (incl. cannabis)
Within the psychedelic space, Graham fulfils two major roles
1 Helping companies defend their novel and non-obvious patents
2 Challenge the status quo & fight for psychedelic access
Graham’s successes include fighting the DEA on scheduling psychedelics that are mainly used for research purposes
Together with Matt Zorn (and others), he successfully prevented DOI, DOC, and DiPT (+4 more) from falling into the restrictive Schedule I
Over at @Psyched_Alphahe is keeping track of psychedelic patents, ranging from psilocybin to MDMA
The resource is the place to go for keeping tabs on the latest innovations (and sometimes obvious claims) psychedelic companies are granted
Next to his contributions to the public benefit, Graham (and his team) works closely with tens of psychedelic companies to protect their intellectual property
He has worked with @redlightholland, Indication Bioscience and is a founding member of the Psychedelic Bar Association
When not thinking about psychedelics, Graham can be found driving his motorcycle into the woods
But even then, he finds a way to draw the analogy between his volunteer work as a Miur Woods ranger and psychedelics
As the ecosystem of a forest is disturbed, the unintended consequences can have devastating effects on the life within the ecosystem
Graham argues that the same can happen with psychedelics, and he is fighting hard to steer the ship away from icebergs
Instead of seeing patents as the evil consequence of a capitalist system, he “ultimately wants to see the patent system being what it is intended to be, which is the creation of society”
Learn more about @calyxlaw ‘s work at the free webinar that we’re putting together with @OPEN_fndn this Wednesday
Links
https://twitter.com/blossomact/status/1466784397957517317?s=20&t=KgbEFrRAAYL_QChxnLFJsg — Graham at Horizons 2021
And finally, vote for Graham’s panel at @sxsw https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/118278
