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susurrador
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Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' 1
#26444198 - 01/21/20 02:16 AM (4 years, 8 days ago) |
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Original article: HERE
Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin,’ Frustrating Decriminalization Advocates
As psychedelics reform efforts pick up across the U.S., there’s an increasing weariness among advocates about the potential corporatization that may follow.
That’s why many found it alarming when a California-based company announced on Thursday that it had successfully trademarked the word “psilocybin,” the main psychoactive constituent of so-called magic mushrooms.
Psilocybin™ is a brand of chocolates that do not contain the psychedelic itself but are meant to “begin educating, enlightening and supporting the community in upgrading their inner vibrations in order to get everything they want of their time here on earth,” according to a mission statement.
Soon after founder Scarlet Ravin shared news of the trademark on LinkedIn, advocates raised questions and concerns: What does that mean on a practical level for other psilocybin organizations? Why should one brand get exclusive rights (to a certain legal extent) to the scientific name of a natural substance?
The reality of this particular trademark is more nuanced than it might appear at first glance. While it’s true that the company was granted the distinction by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it’s specifically for educational materials and it’s listed on the supplemental register, rather than the principal register, which means it would be incumbent upon the brand to prove that it has earned distinctiveness of the mark if the issue went to court.
“It’s certainly good for her business to have that mark, but I think at the end of the day, it’s going to be somewhat weak,” Larry Sandell, an intellectual property attorney at Mei & Mark LLP, told Marijuana Moment. He added that this example is “indicative that people are trying to stake early claims to IP.”
“Even if they might be somewhat overreaching, people see a potential new market here and they want to stake out their ground,” he said. “It’s a big next space that people are anticipating a legal market. Maybe it’s where cannabis was five to 10 years ago.”
Despite those legal limitations, reform advocates view the trademark as emblematic of a bigger issue—that someone would presume to take ownership of a substance that’s at the center of a national debate on whether or not to criminalize individuals for using it.
Kevin Matthews, who led the successful campaign to decriminalize psilocybin mushrooms in Denver last year and is the founder of the national psychedelics advocacy group SPORE, told Marijuana Moment that he didn’t doubt Ravin had the right intentions—to promote education into the substance—but he said the decision to trademark is nonetheless questionable.
“This being an open-source movement, trademarking the word psilocybin, in some ways it feels like—although I don’t think this is her intention—it’s lacking perspective,” he said. “Does that mean we can’t use psilocybin as SPORE because we’re an educational non-profit and she’s a for-profit branded company? It doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. She needs to let go of the trademark.”
Ravin said that her goal in trademarking psilocybin was to prevent the substance from being becoming the next cannabis, which she said has been corrupted from its “true spiritual, medicinal benefit” and turned into a corporate commodity.
“Knowing that psilocybin is going to be next [to be legalized] I feel strongly guided by the deepest part of my heart to really offer a sense of education of what could be when you take such a strong, beautiful medicine and to give people an education platform here and now to let them know what’s coming, how to receive it, how to get the most benefit from,” she told Marijuana Moment in a phone interview.
“We paved the way for this being a medicinal offering and not a consumer, recreational shitshow. That was our intention,” Ravin said. “The only way that we are going to have access to mainstream consumers is by having some sort of trademark on the word so that we can use it for something that’s not what it actually is.”
“With this being something that we can now put into market with a box of chocolates that has no psilocybin in it, but as you can already see, it creates a platform for discussion of what the beauty of this plant can do,” she said. “Me and my movement and my team, we don’t own the word. We’re not going to ever sue anyone who also uses the word—we’re opening a doorway for ourselves and anyone that wants to see this educated upon so that we can hit people who are unfamiliar with it now with downloads to actually have this be a safe, successful psychedelic transition.”
Asked to react to criticism about the trademark from advocates, Ravin said “we’re all here to follow spirit guidance to show love and light, and the visions I had of doing what we’re doing now was based upon breaking boundaries and breaking perceptions and allowing people to have an opportunity to sink into being one unit.”
“Yeah, it might be coming out, we might be using the platform of psilocybin. We can use any platform to do this,” she said. “We can use any platform to come together as a whole, and the longer that people sit in duality and say, ‘oh now she’s going to have a stronger voice than me is just looking at something not through their heart,’ it’s looking at it through ego and judgement.”
“The more that we describe what we’re doing, the more people I think will start to feel our unity and we’ll be able to move together as a stronger force than pointing fingers and trying to separate one another,” she said. “Those days are done.”
Ravin said that once the Psilocybin™ chocolates are ready for market, she plans to contribute 10 percent of profits to the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies (MAPS), which is involved in researching therapeutic benefits of psychedelic substances.
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26444199 - 01/21/20 02:20 AM (4 years, 8 days ago) |
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This seems like shady moves. The trademark protection seems to be limited to educational materials pertaining to psilocybin, but still. Will this enable the company to limit other's use of the term psilocybin in any way?
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26444205 - 01/21/20 02:27 AM (4 years, 8 days ago) |
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Photo from the original article
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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falcon



Registered: 04/01/02
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26444912 - 01/21/20 06:30 PM (4 years, 8 days ago) |
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Haha consummate scamstress, wankers at Tradesmarkville.
Edited by falcon (01/21/20 06:44 PM)
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Ran-D



Registered: 12/19/10
Posts: 16,311
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: falcon] 2
#26446042 - 01/22/20 10:22 AM (4 years, 7 days ago) |
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This girl has clearly dissolved her ego completely and achieved peak woke-ness.
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relic
of a bygone era


Registered: 10/14/14
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Loc: the right coast
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: Ran-D] 2
#26446081 - 01/22/20 10:39 AM (4 years, 7 days ago) |
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She has upgraded her vibrations.
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: relic]
#26447334 - 01/22/20 10:50 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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It bothers me. Deep down-like. As a stoner and avid consumer of psychedelics, everything about this lady's business is rattling me.
Her weed business is the same. Take anything and put a cosmic bullshit shine on it. I hope most people see through this.
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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falcon



Registered: 04/01/02
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26447348 - 01/22/20 11:07 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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Eh, the Trademark office probably assigned an intern to review her application and whatever clerk/lawyer they were working for signed off on the intern's recomendation for aproval without loking at it.
Edited by falcon (01/22/20 11:17 PM)
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Big Worm
Perf


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: falcon] 2
#26447355 - 01/22/20 11:14 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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I used to live in a town where it was a bunch of greedy mother fuckers that would try to cloak themselves in bullshit spirituality as a cover. Sell you “an all natural insect repellent “ that is just lemon and eucalyptus oil and charge $30 for it cause it was “made in the valley”.
My one homie got cocaine from this chick before and she was like , “oh wait, I have to go into the other room to bless this for you “ And she’d go In there and obviously cut it. Lol
Legit worst people.
I couldn’t make that shit up if I tried.
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falcon



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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: Big Worm] 1
#26447365 - 01/22/20 11:24 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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I ask for my blessings in a seperate bag.
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ballsalsa
Universally Loathed and Reviled



Registered: 03/11/15
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: falcon]
#26447394 - 01/22/20 11:47 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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--------------------
Like cannabis topics? Read my cannabis blog here
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: ballsalsa]
#26448074 - 01/23/20 12:04 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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The old reverse sneeze bag blessing trick.
Everyone falls for it once.
I'd just hate to see science thrown out the window in favor of pseudo-spiritual nonsense.
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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Ran-D



Registered: 12/19/10
Posts: 16,311
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26448114 - 01/23/20 12:24 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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Quote:
susurrador said:
Her weed business is the same. Take anything and put a cosmic bullshit shine on it. I hope most people see through this.
Oh god, their IG is all pretty girls with vape pens and lame inspirational quotes.
And it's always a red flag when a company uses all their flower to make vape pens and sugar scrubs and shit. That means they grow moldy boof that can't be put on the shelf.
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relic
of a bygone era


Registered: 10/14/14
Posts: 5,623
Loc: the right coast
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: Ran-D]
#26448420 - 01/23/20 03:10 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: relic]
#26448498 - 01/23/20 04:02 PM (4 years, 6 days ago) |
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Exactly. That's who received a supplemental registry trademark for EDUCATIONAL materials pertaining to the word Psilocybin.
@scarletravin vapes mids and thinks it's sexy.
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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Asante
Mage


Registered: 02/06/02
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26451977 - 01/25/20 02:06 PM (4 years, 4 days ago) |
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-------------------- Omnicyclion.org higher knowledge starts here
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susurrador
Psychedelic Cowboy


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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: Asante] 1
#26452322 - 01/25/20 05:52 PM (4 years, 4 days ago) |
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I see the parallel, but this lady is also taking early strides in the commercial mushroom direction. Which, really.. nothing wrong with being among the first to position themselves for an upcoming rush..
My issue is that the only thing you can do with a TM is limit other's use of the term. In this case it seems to be for educational materials. I'd like to know what that means exactly. It does not seem sound that someone claims their objective is to educate people about shrooms before the "rec scene" ruins it, yet is limiting how people might use the term psilocybin in any way. Me thinks it's a TM squat until someone wants the TM bad enough to buy the business. All the chocolates are sold out and also have a hunch they won't be restocked.
Will keep tabs and update as I find out more.
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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Loaded Shaman
Psychophysiologist



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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: susurrador]
#26452779 - 01/26/20 12:57 AM (4 years, 3 days ago) |
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Didn't Gene Simmons try to patent/trademark the term "OJ" referring to orange juice?
What a world.
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  "Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance." — Confucius
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TIS87
Stranger

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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: Loaded Shaman]
#26454459 - 01/27/20 03:56 AM (4 years, 2 days ago) |
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Why even trademark it in this context?
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susurrador
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Re: Recent Article: Company Gets Trademark For The Word ‘Psilocybin...' [Re: TIS87]
#26460363 - 01/30/20 02:18 PM (3 years, 11 months ago) |
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Quote:
TIS87 said:
Why even trademark it in this context?
I'm thinking to sit on the TM and sell the business including the TM when the legal shroom business emerges and heats up.
Or possibly just for the headlines.
Both?
-------------------- "If it doesn't work, you can always hit him with it."
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