Cannabis Law Now Podcast - Cannabis in the Show Me State: An Interview with BeLeaf Medical's Mitch Meyers
Cannabis Law Now Podcast - The 4-1-1 on Cannabis Receiverships from a Top Cannabis Receiver
Podcast - Hot Topics in FDA Regulation: GLP-1s, LDTs, AI and More
Cannabis Law Now Podcast - From Law Firm to Board Room: The Journey of a Cannabis Entrepreneur
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: Cannabis and Hemp Federal and State Advocacy in 2025
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: New York Cannabis: Ups, Downs, and In Between
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: Local Government and Cannabis Enforcement — What Matters and Why
12 Days of Regulatory Insights: Day 5 - Cannabis Chronicles — Regulatory Oversight Podcast
Bringing Your Cannabis Brand to New York
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: Building a Lasting Cannabis Brand with Tiffany Chin from Death Row Cannabis
Cannabis & Psychedelics On the 2024 Ballot
Cannabis Rescheduling: Timeline, Tax Strategies & 280E
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: 2024 Cannabis Industry Pitfalls on Blast
Mitigating and Addressing Litigation Risks for Cannabis Businesses
Cannabis M&A: Pain Points and Opportunities
Managing Labor and Employment Complexities in Cannabis Businesses
Intellectual property considerations for launching new cannabis products
Unpacking the current cannabis regulatory landscape and how it impacts your business
The Presumption of Innocence Podcast: Special Edition | Episode 36 - Rolling Change: The DEA Turns Over a New Leaf on Marijuana Scheduling
Cannabis Law Now Podcast: Farmers First According to Humboldt Trim Company
The cannabis industry has experienced consistent growth over recent years, leading to substantial investment and an increase in the industry’s commercial relevance. This momentum shows no signs of slowing down, as states...more
IP cases in the cannabis industry are lighting up court dockets more and more. In a new case with potential for serious baggage, Kinzie Advanced Polymers, LLC (“Kinzie”) filed a federal lawsuit against a group of...more
Trademark law protects businesses’ brand identities and helps prevent consumer confusion. The U.S. trademark system operates at both federal and state levels. Federal registration through the United States Patent and...more
Recent legislative changes in California have opened up exciting opportunities for cannabis lounges and retailers. With a new law allowing on-premise consumption areas, the sale of food and drinks, and the hosting of live...more
Navigating the cannabis industry’s legal landscape in the United States is like moving through an ever-evolving maze, especially in the world of intellectual property. As more states legalize cannabis for medical and...more
Republic Technologies (NA) LLC (“Republic”) filed an application to register the proposed mark 4:20 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”). Republic amended its goods twice during prosecution of the...more
Apologies for the cannabis puns in the title, but they are required by law. Okay, you are correct. That is not true. But it is true that trademark protection is important for individuals in the cannabis industry. Earlier this...more
In our previous post, we discussed how a cannabis business can take steps to avoid potential trademark infringement claims. In this release, we will discuss how a cannabis business can use trademarks for brand protection –...more
A recent lawsuit alleging trademark infringement by AmerikanWeed illustrates the importance of protecting intellectual property in the cannabis industry. Complaint at 9-10, Palmer, et al. v. Komm et al., No. 21-2-13589-3 SEA...more
Recently, we published an article regarding the increasing viability of cannabis related patents. See here. Sadly, the story is the opposite for federal trademarks. Last month, National Concessions Group, Inc. (“NCG”) was...more
After years of uncertainty, the USPTO has finally provided insight on how it views applications for cannabis-related marks, suggesting that the use of such marks will be heavily scrutinized. In 2016, National Concession...more
Federal bans, lack of knowledge, and misinformation all stifle IP protection in the cannabis industry. Previously, one of our colleagues attended MJBizCon in Nevada and noted that “there is so much more to be done to bring...more
Thank you for reading the January 2023 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss an ongoing trademark dispute between the band OK Go and cereal company Post, how to stay vigilant about...more
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s recently issued precedential decision dismissing an opposition alleging a likelihood of confusion between the registered mark SMOK and a pending application for the mark SMOKES and...more
Thank you for reading the November 2022 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we address a precedential TTAB decision that presents interesting priority issues relating in particular to the...more
The state of intellectual property is in flux within the cannabis industry. On the eve of MJBizCon, below is a brief inventory of where the law stands on cannabis-related issues for branding and technology....more
Although commercial use of a trademark alone triggers rights in a mark, wise business owners endeavor to take advantage of the added benefits and protections conveyed by federal registration. One of the most important...more
With an increasing number of states legalizing the growth, sales, and use of medicinal and recreational marijuana, the cannabis industry is becoming an increasingly prevalent force in national and world markets. As the...more
Delta 8 tetrahydrocannabinol ("THC"), an intoxicating form of THC often derived from hemp-derived cannabidiol (aka "CBD"), has been at the center of numerous hot button issues since its arrival in the broader hemp product...more
In the first federal appellate ruling on delta-8 THC, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals deemed the substance legal—at least for purposes of trademark protection—concluding that if “Congress inadvertently created a loophole...more
Thank you for reading the May 2022 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter. This month, we discuss Spotify's exploration into NFTs, two new USPTO policies with practical implications for trademark applicants...more
The December 2021 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses new enforcement tools courtesy of the Trademark Modernization Act; Pfizer's acquisition of Arena Pharmaceuticals; the latest developments in...more
The November 2021 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses the emergence of trademark filings for NFTs and a recent ITC patent infringement case regarding imported oil-vape cartridges. In this...more
The decriminalization of cannabis in some states, and its partial decriminalization at the federal level, has created an explosive market for cannabis itself and the myriad chemicals that compose the plant. The 2018 Farm Bill...more
The October 2021 issue of Sterne Kessler's MarkIt to Market® newsletter discusses a precedential TTAB decision regarding fraud; the DEA's proposal to increase production quotas for several schedule I controlled substances,...more