A provisional patent application is a legal document which establishes an early priority date for the benefit of claiming "first to file" status against other companies or individuals that may want to file for a patent with similar claims after the filing date of our provisional application.
Acetaminophen is a pain reliever with a long history of effective use and when consumed as prescribed, it is a well-tolerated and safe medication.
Acetaminophen belongs to a class of drugs known as non-opioid analgesics. It is found in many cold medications and in popular products such as Tylenol (recognized as a registered trademark of Johnson and Johnson) and has been one of the largest selling OTC (over-the-counter) drugs in the world generating billions of revenue each year.
Cannabidiol (CBD) is a molecule which is present in most varieties of the cannabis sativa and cannabis indica plants. Unlike some of the other molecules found in varieties of the cannabis plant, it is non-psychoactive and it is not believed to have any addictive properties.
It is also extremely well tolerated at high doses with little or no side effects. Cannabidiol catapulted into a national story after being an important part of the 2013 CNN documentary "Weed" (commonly referred to as the Charlotte’s Web Story).
The documentary highlighted the story of a little girl, Charlotte Figi, who was suffering from Dravet syndrome, a condition that produces daily epileptic seizures in children. Many people now credit the Charlotte’s web story for creating the sweeping changes in medical marijuana laws throughout the United States.
George Blankenbaker, Stevia Corp. commented, "Over the past 12 months, we have been building an internal business plan which we believe will create significant value for our shareholders. It was important that we did not disclose details of these plans until we had the proper protection."
Mr. Blankenbaker continued, "We understand that communication is critical to maintain shareholder support and will continue to update shareholders when important material events occur. The Company must carefully manage disclosure of future plans and do so in a time frame and manner that is informative to shareholders without damaging the Company’s competitive position.
"We believe the application that we have filed with the USPTO allows the Company to pursue a strategic and broad business strategy to legally market and sell a product that can be sold as an OTC healthcare product. Alternatively, we are exploring the possibility of partnering with a large pharmaceutical company that has extensive experience in either the pain care market or experience with acetaminophen."
Mr. Blankenbaker concluded, "At the advice of our intellectual property attorney, we are not going to announce details about the claims within our provisional patent application. We will simply add that the claims are well thought out and we believe future planned developments will put us in an enviable position among all companies in the acetaminophen and cannabidiol markets.
"We welcome our shareholders and prospective investors to research the size of the acetaminophen market and to also research the worldwide interest being generated for cannabidiol."
A provisional patent application is not required to have a formal patent claim or an oath or declaration. However, an applicant who files a provisional application must file a non-provisional application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office within 12 months of the filing of the provisional patent application in order to benefit from the priority date.
Most importantly, the provisional application allows the owner to market products that are believed to be covered by the patent application with "patent pending" status. Stevia Corp filed its application pursuant to other country’s patent statutes, which will allow Stevia Corp to claim the priority date in many other countries besides the United States upon the filing of a non-provisional patent application.
The Company filed its patent application with the aid of an intellectual property law firm with extensive experience in pharmaceutical and biotechnology patents.