Fred is a former diplomat who joined Harris Bricken after more than a decade of international legal experience, primarily in China, Vietnam, and Thailand. His wide range of experience includes starting and operating his own business in Asia, working as an in-house counsel for a Hong Kong-based multinational, as well as many years as a State Department official, providing a client-centric perspective to his legal work. Fred co-hosts Harris Bricken’s weekly Global Law and Business podcast, which covers legal and economic developments in locales around the world to decipher global trends in law and business with the help from international guests.
Editor’s Note: A version of this article by Fred Rocafort was first published on Law360. The U.S. Constitution’s free speech protections, found in the First Amendment, may present a legal recourse for cannabis brands in trouble for using marks that are similar to famous trademarks. To be clear, a free speech argument will not be
Gustavo Petro is Colombia’s next president, following his electoral win on June 19. The election of its first leftist president, together with its first Afro-Colombian vice-president, is no doubt a momentous event for Latin America’s third-most populous country. What will a Petro presidency mean for cannabis? According to Petro’s platform, a “focus on prohibitionism …
On June 14, the Sixth Panel (Sexta Turma) of Brazil’s Superior Court of Justice (Superior Tribunal de Justiça, or STJ) issued a decision allowing cultivation of cannabis for medical purposes. The STJ is responsible for uniformizing the interpretation of Brazilian federal law across the country, and serves as the court of final appeal for cases
As of yesterday, June 9, 2022, the home cultivation of low tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) cannabis in Thailand is legal. The government is giving away free plants to boot! This constitutes a milestone for cannabis reform in the country and the region at large, but the Thai changes fall short of the “decriminalization” widely touted in the
Earlier this month, we discussed the approval of a new regulatory framework for hemp and medical cannabis by Argentina’s legislature. At the time, we focused our attention on those who, reflecting antiquated thinking on cannabis, voted against the bill. Today we finally turn to the substance of what is officially known as the Regulatory Framework
Just last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed a lower court’s holding that the 2018 Farm Bill legalized delta-8 THC products derived from hemp. In the Ninth Circuit’s view, “the plain and unambiguous text of the Farm [Bill] compels the conclusion that the delta-8 THC products before us are lawful.”
Argentina’s Chamber of Deputies has approved a law to regulate the hemp and medical cannabis industries. According to one of the bill’s sponsors, “a new industry has been born in Argentina” with the passage of the bill (which we flagged last summer in Legalization in Latin America: Who’s Next After Mexico?). The new law enjoyed
The Caribbean is questioning its enduring ties to the British Crown, as it seeks to fully turn the page on its colonial past. During the next few years, we will likely see several of the independent Caribbean nations that maintain constitutional ties to the British monarch become republics, led by local heads of state. These
When it comes to canna law on the internet, half-truths might be a bigger problem than outright lies or mistakes. Recently, our sister China Law Blog declared that China Law on the Internet Is All Wrong. As a lawyer who spends a lot of time working on China-related matters, I can confirm that there is
Could the First Amendment’s free speech protections offer a lifeline to cannabis brands hauled into court for trademark infringement for using parody trademarks? In some cases, it might. For readers unfamiliar with the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, it reads: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
