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
The new fee structure is presented as a neutral pricing adjustment to replace the current TEAS Plus and TEAS Standard application filing options with a single base application option that changes based on the "complexity and...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
The Ninth Circuit issued two opinions in BBK Tobacco & Foods LLP v. Central Coast Agriculture, Inc. finding judicial power over pending trademark applications and an exception shielding trademark registrations for marks used...more
Federal trademark registration is typically unavailable for goods and services related to the sale of cannabis. But a combination of federal copyright registration and state trademark registration for these goods and...more
Based on recent events, it seems likely marijuana will be rescheduled under the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) sometime this year. While many industry experts have discussed the impacts in recent months, many questions still...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
A Texas appellate court recently upheld a decision to prevent a ban on the sale of delta-8 tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) products in the state. Tex. Dep’t of State Health Servs. v. Sky Mktg. Corp., No. 03-21-00571-CV, 2023 BL...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
With more individuals and businesses entering the cannabis sector, there has been an increased interest in what kind of trademark protections a cannabis business can obtain. This article seeks to briefly cover what in the...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
The Trademark Trial and Appeals Board denied an application to register a trademark for essential oil dispensers meant to fill smoking devices with cannabis-based oils. Scott Hervey and Tara Sattler talk about this case on...more
Addressing the registrability of marks for cannabis-related products, the Trademark Trial & Appeal Board upheld an Examiner’s refusal to register marks for an “essential oil dispenser” based on extrinsic evidence that the...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