The year 2020 was a shock for all of us from both personal and business perspectives, but 2021 is shaping up to look much better, especially for Washington cannabis companies. In the past three months, I have had serious conversations with many clients and prospective clients regarding M&A activities. The pace of inquiries has accelerated
The latest case of trademark infringement involving a cannabis company provides a great illustration of a trademark concept that can be difficult to convey to clients, which is the concept of “likelihood of confusion” where two marks are not identical, or even all that close to identical. According to news reports, “Menthol cigarette brand Kool
Earlier this month, Circle K Stores Inc., owner and operator of the chain of Circle K convenience stores, filed a Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) Notice of Opposition against Medical Marijuana, Inc., a California company with a pending U.S. federal trademark application for the following design mark (the “MM ‘K’ Mark”): The MM “K”
It’s been a little while since we’ve talked about patent protection on the blog, but a recent consultation reminded me a primer on the different types of patents potentially available could be beneficial. Here in the United States, there are three broad categories of patents, all of which are governed by the Patent Act (or
An appeals court in Brazil is set to consider the issue of cannabis-related trademarks, and in particular their registrability under the country’s Intellectual Property Law (LPI), which forbids the registration of marks “contrary to morals and good customs” (Article 124, III). One of the key issues at the intersection of cannabis law and cannabis business
It seems like a new trademark infringement case pops up every week in the cannabis space, and I often find myself using the supposedly infringing cannabis companies as examples of what NOT to do when choosing or managing a brand. But this time, it appears that the cannabis company in question, Green Thumb Industries Inc.,
Perhaps the most exciting announcement in the world of celebrity cannabis companies came last week with the announcement of Martha Stewart’s new line of hemp-derived CBD products, which include tinctures, soft gels, and “pâte des fruit.” The products are manufactured and sold through Canadian company Canopy Growth Corporation, which also produces Snoop Dogg’s cannabis brand
On July 22, 2020, Clint Eastwood filed two separate lawsuits in federal court in Los Angeles against three CBD manufacturers and marketing companies that posted fabricated online articles falsely claiming that Eastwood endorsed CBD products, as well as ten online CBD retailers that allegedly manipulated search results to make it appear that he had endorsed
Over the last couple of years, our firm has seen a massive uptick in cannabis-related trademark litigation, and have handled many of these disputes on behalf of our clients, both as stand-alone matters and in conjunction with partnership disputes. Here are a few of the trademark disputes we’ve covered recently (our blog archives are full
Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about the uptick in cannabis business suing one another for trademark infringement (as opposed to non-cannabis companies suing cannabis companies, which happens a lot and which you can read about here, here, and here). The example at hand was the litigation between Harvest Dispensaries Cultivation & Production Facilities,
