The cannabis industry is hurting right now, and most everyone is feeling it. As new and old clients consider pursuing breach of contract and other claims against cannabis businesses that are failing, one question seems to come up again and again: can we sue the owner(s) of the cannabis company personally for the company’s failures
In March of this year, the Oregon Health Authority (“OHA”) promulgated a new rule that required testing marijuana for certain microbiological contaminants, including for aspergillus. We wrote about this rule not long after noting that aspergillus—a type of mold that can cause a skin cause a condition called aspergillosis when inhaled or introduced through a
California’s cannabis industry is a mess. Between the rampant illegal market, onerous taxation, unnecessarily complicated regulations, debt defaults, and a host of other factors, things have never been worse. Businesses big and small are imploding. Without federal bankruptcy protection, the best tool available to insolvent and nearly insolvent companies is gone. So we’re going to
As the cannabis economy tanks (with the exception of states that just came online for medical and/or adult-use), cannabis litigation is picking up. Most of this litigation revolves around partnership disputes, unpaid bills, breached contracts, and solvency. All cannabis entrepreneurs and businesses should be mindful of cannabis litigation trends, especially in these lean times. To
It’s been an eventful month in Oregon cannabis. Below are some early summer notes on three things we’ve been doing and watching and writing about. The Chalice receivership I covered this last month as the ship was going down. Today, the Oregon receivership is well underway and we’re getting regular notices. It hasn’t been smooth
On June 15, 2023, the OLCC approved temporary rules requiring marijuana retailers to obtain a Certificate of Tax Compliance (“Certificate”) from the Oregon Department of Revenue (“DOR”) as a condition for acquiring or renewing a marijuana retailer license, as well as for changes of ownership and adding someone to a license. These new rules resulted
The news tricked out slowly, then all at once: New York has settled the Variscite litigation, and the injunction prohibiting Conditional Adult-Use Retail Dispensary (CAURD) licenses in the Finger Lakes region has been lifted. The settlement was approved during the Cannabis Control Board (CCB) meeting on May 30, 2023, paving the way for new CAURD
We got a lot of good follow-up questions last week after our webinar covering cannabis litigation in the current down market. One of them related to the recovery of attorneys’ fees and how likely that is to happen. Potential recovery of attorneys’ fees is an important consideration at the outset of any case, but can
News broke yesterday which will affect quite a few people in the Oregon cannabis industry. Chalice Brands Ltd. (CSA: CHAL) obtained a court order in Ontario, Canada (“Initial Order”) which grants the company and its affiliates protection (a “stay”) from creditors. At least temporarily. The Initial Order is here and the Chalice press release is
In a precedential decision, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (“TTAB”) affirmed an examining attorney’s refusal to register two “Bakked” trademarks by deeming the goods to be illegal drug paraphernalia under the Controlled Substances Act (the “CSA”) and deciding the two exemptions of the CSA did not apply. The Bakked trademark applications National Concessions Group
