There has been considerable buzz around the term “Internet of Things” over the past few years. But what exactly is the Internet of Things (IoT)? It is: [T]he network of physical objects—devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity—that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. Almost everyone uses
Part 1 of this series was on the union of marijuana and the Internet of Things (IoT). This post is on the legal issues cannabis business lawyers face in representing companies involved in the Internet of Things. What happens when you combine cannabis, whose laws are changing almost daily, with technologies that are constantly evolving as well? You
Phase II cannabis licensing in the City of Los Angeles (for only non-retail activity) kicked off on August 1 at 12 p.m. (and it will conclude on September 13th). To qualify for a City of Los Angeles cannabis license during this timeframe, an applicant must, among other things, be eligible for the City’s cannabis social equity program. This
In cannabis intellectual property (IP) law, as in most areas of cannabis law, separating the flowers from the weeds is difficult. There is a lot of misinformation available on the internet and elsewhere about whether pot is protectable under patent or similar laws, and what patentability means for the industry. This post gives an overview of
Last week I attended the International Trademark Association’s Annual Meeting, where one of the somewhat obscure topics discussed is something I’ve actually seen crop up recently in practice. The question is at what point the use of a fictional character in branding or advertising constitutes either trademark or copyright infringement. And the answer is not
ChatGPT is all the rage. The GPT stands for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer”. Translation: this is a next level, nearly omnipotent chatbot that’s incredibly articulate and conversant. Per Wikipedia: “while the core function of a chatbot is to mimic a human conversationalist, ChatGPT is versatile, including the ability to write and debug computer programs; to compose
Since launching our Web3 practice group, we have been getting steady inquiries regarding cannabis and web3 crossover. In this post, I focus on the tokenization of cannabis business assets, which often occurs through ICOs (initial coin offerings). This is currently an unsettled area of law in the U.S., and we do not recommend trying to
Cannabis advertising has always been a precarious art. From first amendment commercial speech issues to zealous state marketing and promotion regulations to false claim lawsuits, cannabis advertising can go down some dark rabbit holes. Notoriously, tech giants like Instagram and Facebook would take down cannabis-related ad content for violating site terms and conditions around the
The Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 (2018 Farm Bill) legalized hemp by removing the crop and its derivatives from the definition of marijuana under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) and by providing a detailed framework for the cultivation of hemp. The 2018 Farm Bill gives the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) regulatory authority over hemp
With so much discussion surrounding the difficulties of obtaining trademark protection for cannabis-related marks, it’s easy to forget that the battle isn’t over when a registration issues. Even after you have completed the onerous process of prosecuting your trademark application, there is no automatic guarantee that others won’t attempt to use your mark, or a
