Detailed Statement in Support of Request for Reexamination of U.S. Plant Patent No. 5,751 (November, 1999) (Downes & Wiser) [BW99-9]

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This request for reexamination is being filed by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), on behalf of the Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment (Amazon Coalition).   The Requesters respectfully seek a determination by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“PTO”) on the issue of whether the above-referenced prior art raises a substantial new question of patentability regarding Claim 1, the sole claim of the patent. This claim is for a new and distinct variety (cultivar) of the species Banisteriopsis caapi,dubbed “Da Vine” by Miller, the patent applicant.

This request for reexamination is appropriate based upon the additional prior art provided by the Requesters. For all the foregoing reasons, the Requesters believe that Claim 1 was not patentable at the time of filing, and that the Examiner would not have allowed it had the most relevant art been before him. The Requesters therefore seek a determination on the record of the validity of Claim 1.

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