Jihee is an experienced complex commercial litigator in Harris Bricken’s Portland and Los Angeles offices. She represents clients in business, intellectual property, and real estate matters. Having worked extensively in both federal and state courts, Jihee advises her clients from case intake through arbitration and trial.
As we’ve written about over the past several years, there have been consistent rallying cries for common-sense banking reform for the cannabis industry. The SAFE Banking Act, which would allow federally regulated financial institutions to work with state-legal cannabis businesses, has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives a whopping seven times. However, the
We’ve anticipated this for a while, but a recent lawsuit indicates that certain marijuana company mislabeling antics are getting called out, regarding false advertising. One recent lawsuit heralds a potential new wave of litigation. The lawsuit The plaintiffs are two California consumers who sued a California marijuana company, DreamFields Brands, Inc. and Med for America
We’ve written plenty about cannabis arbitrations before, and why these proceedings may make more sense for your situation (see links at the bottom of this post!). But when you need fast, injunctive relief, a prior agreement to arbitrate can potentially be disastrous. Arbitration is much slower than other litigation to get started — even though
It looks like the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has its eye on the cannabis industry and specifically stock promotion schemes. Last month, the Commission announced charges against two cannabis companies and associated individuals for their involvement in “a fraudulent scheme to promote the securities.” The companies at issue are Elegance Brands Inc., Emerald Health
The U.S. Court of International Trade (“CIT”) issued a recent opinion that indicates the import or export of “drug paraphernalia” to or from states where cannabis is legal represents an exception to the federal ban imposed by the Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). Under 21 U.S.C. § 863(d), “drug paraphernalia” is broadly defined as: any equipment,
What is the TCPA again? For years past, we regularly counseled our clients about the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (“TCPA”) because the cannabis industry, like many others, were being targeted for TCPA violations which were sometimes legitimate, sometimes not. For those who are still unfamiliar, the TCPA is a federal statute that was passed in
Our litigation team regularly attends mediations both before a lawsuit is filed and while a lawsuit is pending. We’ve covered mediation in the past, but for those who are unfamiliar, mediation is essentially a conference in which parties sit down together, generally with a neutral third party, to see if they can resolve cannabis litigation
Around this time last year, my colleague, Jesse Mondry, wrote about a District of Colorado case, entitled Sensoria, LLC et al. v. Kaweske, et al. , which involved a group of plaintiffs who sought to recover their investment in a cannabis business, Clover Top Holdings. The underlying set of facts involve an all-too-familiar cannabis investment
A final judgment recently rendered in WM. Wrigley Jr. Company v. Roberto Conde, et al., is nothing short of a cautionary tale and a powerful reminder to cannabis companies: Parody is NOT a defense to trademark infringement in this type of commercial context. The parties We all know Wrigley – it’s a titan in the
While patent protection has been generally available for some time now, we’ve covered why patent protection has been largely limited for the cannabis industry (see this post). However, that isn’t going to stop patent infringement actions from reaching cannabis businesses, as can be seen from a recent case filed by a greenhouse builder. The complaint
