Cannabis as we all know is illegal in India because of its narcotic effects and use of adolescent turning it into a drug substitutional process. Then after it also has many positive values which the people are not so aware of. The US patent agency has filed a patent on cannabis for its drug and medicinal value as it is an anticancer agent and also used as a composition in many pharmaceutical  companies for the manufacture of several byproducts  but 6,630,507 has become internet-famous since the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration opted not to reschedule marijuana, leaving it in the category of drugs with no legitimate medical uses. The  U.S. Patent No. 6,630,507, granted in 2003 to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and covering the potential use of non-psychoactive cannabinoids to protect the brain from damage or degeneration caused by certain diseases, such as cirrhosis.

 

 

According to Sam Mendes who is an intellectual property and public policy lawyer who serves as the executive director of the University of Washington’s Cannabis Law & Policy Project; the application was symbolic ant though their intention “Naturally, it shows that there is a certain amount of hypocrisy that there is ‘no accepted medical use’ for cannabis according to federal law,” proposed by Mendez. He also said that- “And yet here you have the very same government owning a patent for, ostensibly, a medical use for marijuana.”

 Highlighting the patent no 6,630,507 

Willie Nelson holds up a container of his branded marijuana with “6630507” written on it. Following the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s inaction on rescheduling marijuana, legalization proponents have responded by taking to the internet to highlight Patent No. 6,630,507, which covers the potential use of non-psychoactive cannabinoids.

Patent lawyers like Mendez says that, the research arm of the HHS and the New York biopharmaceutical firm that’s working as an exclusive licensee under the patent also cautions that the existence of Patent No. 6,630,507 doesn’t signal that legalization is on the horizon. Moreover -“The government is allowed to file and obtain patents, and that has no bearing on the Controlled Substances Act,”  proposed Mendez. But it does indicate what could result if cannabis were rescheduled: an explosion of marijuana-related patents, proposed Mendez .

NO. 6,630,507’S INCEPTION 

In  the case of No. 6,630,507, the researchers discovered that non-psychoactive compounds in cannabis may have antioxidant properties that could be beneficial in the treatment of certain neurological diseases, according to this patent-“it describes the therapeutic potential for cannabinoid chemical compounds that are structurally similar to THC,

 But without its psychoactive properties, thereby treating specific conditions without the adverse side effects associated with smoked marijuana,” The patent doesn’t prove the chemical compound is effective in the stated treatment, Rohrbaugh said. The compound would have to be purified, synthesized in a lab setting, subjected to extensive testing in animals and humans, and ultimately require U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval to show that it’s safe and effective for the intended purpose.

  1. The intent behind patenting and licensing NIH discoveries is to keep technology that could potentially benefit the public from sitting idle.
  2. This sometimes requires looping in the private sector, he said. Laws made in the 1980s help entities such as universities and the government to make their discoveries accessible to others who are in a position to further the research and potentially commercialize the developments. The entities behind the discoveries typically receive payments as part of the licensing agreement.
  3. NIH’s Technology Transfer Office advertises patents- including those related to cannabinoids- available for licensing on its website, and officials sometimes conduct outreach as well. The licenses often are packaged with some elements of exclusivity, said by Rohrbaugh -“It’s like a piece of land,” he said.
  4. Kannalife, recently featured in a football-related Sports Illustrated report regarding its research into therapies for chronic traumatic encephalopathy, is about to begin raising $15 million in private investments. The money would allow it to start clinical trials related to hepatic encephalopathy as soon as the first quarter of 2018. Petkanas said Kannalife anticipates eventually seeking orphan drug status — a special FDA designation for treating rare conditions. The company also contemplating conducting chronic traumatic encephalopathy-related trials in Europe.

Does marijuana have medicinal benefit ?

  1. As said by Petkanas- “But it can’t be targeted and qualified for repetitive use (without the FDA-approved research).”That one arm of the federal government is poised to make money from cannabis-derived compounds
  2. Another has approved synthetic cannabinoid drugs such as Marinol and Syndromes, tells a story different from the one told by the DEA, which lumped together the hundreds of chemical compounds of cannabis as a Schedule I substance, said Gregory F. Wesner, a Seattle-based patent and trademark attorney for Lane Powell PC.He  suggested that-“The interesting thing here is basically the government being two-faced,”.
  3. If and when national legalization comes, it’ll trigger a swarm of new patent applications, said the UW Cannabis Law Project’s Mendez.“That’s massive growth that does not occur every day or every year That’s the kind of growth you’re talking about once in a generation,” he said of the potential sales growth in the industry. “As part of that, you’re going to see many people and many businesses research this far more intensely and file for patents.”

               Conclusion 

When we come to an conclusion from an analysis conducted by Christopher Freerks will be a best example, that a Lane Powell patent administrator, shows that the PTO already has granted at least four dozen cannabis-related utility patents, including No. 6,630,507. The analysis does not include plant patents, which have been tougher to come by for some cultivators. San Diego patent attorney Dale C. Hunt, an Open Cannabis Project board member who has degrees in botany, genetics and biology, said one would need to develop a completely new strain in order to land a patent.If marijuana is rescheduled, it’s realistic to believe that the innovation could carry on in the laboratories of NIH scientists, he said. But for now, the federal government’s technology transfer and patenting actions around cannabis do not appear to be widespread.“(Tech transfer) happens all the time,” Hunt said. “It obviously doesn’t happen all the time in cannabis.”