We’ve seen a steady stream of trademark litigation in the cannabis space for quite some time now, and it’s as good a time as any to remind our readers that parody is not a defense to trademark infringement. In its complaint filed Monday, Plaintiffs Big Beverage, Inc. and Happy Hour Drinks Company, Inc. dba Happy
In follow-up to this post, we are happy to report that Dr. Sisley is still fighting the good fight: on Monday, Petitioners filed a Petition for Panel Rehearing or Rehearing En Banc. Although it’s not uncommon for these to get filed, few and far in between are granted (filing such a petition to rehash the
We don’t write about criminal cases often, but a recent decision from the Minnesota Court of Appeals caught my eye because of its potential impact on the people of Minnesota and businesses engaged in processing, manufacturing, possession, or selling of Hemp/CBD in Minnesota. This ruling affects manufacturers, processors, sellers, distributors, and consumers of any liquid
Well, it’s over (for now) for Suzanne Sisley. As we covered last year, Sisley, et al. v. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, et al., Case No. 20-71433, was an appellate case filed by a group of scientists and veterans that had sued the DEA in May 2020. They, like so many others, argued that the DEA’s
In a prior post, we discussed some of the emerging trends for cannabis-related companies that seek bankruptcy protection (click here to view the prior post). But, in the first instance, the question is whether a cannabis-related company can file for bankruptcy relief? This post will examine the first decision from Arizona in the case of
Just a few days ago the Texas Court of Appeals published an opinion concerning smokable hemp. Before getting into the ruling, let’s review what happened in Texas after enactment of the 2018 Farm Bill. In 2019, the Texas Legislature enacted statutory provisions regulating certain hemp products. Among the statutes was a law prohibiting any state
As the country moves toward decriminalizing and even legalizing marijuana, federal courts largely remain closed to commercial disputes involving marijuana by operation of the illegality defense. We’ve written about the defense on several occasions, see here and here. Briefly, the illegality defense is an affirmative defense pleaded by a defendant who has been sued for
Our posts here regularly cover celebrity-backed cannabis companies who are doing things right (and sometimes, doing things wrong), but a recent copyright infringement case proves that not all celebrities are interested in getting involved in the industry – and certainly shouldn’t be presumed to be okay with using their fame to promote it. Solar Therapeutics
In a case we’ve been watching closely, a California District Court Judge recently denied a motion by cannabis company Capna Intellectual. The motion sought to dismiss tobacco giant ITG Brands’ dilution claim for its “KOOL” brand. ITG’s branding uses “KOOL OOs” while Capna’s branding uses “BLOOM OOs.” As a refresher, in December 2020, ITG had
One interesting thing about cannabis law is how so much of it ties into “first principles”, or bedrock tenets of the U.S. Constitution. We lawyers spend our days papering deals and suing folks (always with good cause) and defending clients from lawsuits (which are always BS), so we seldom revisit first principles. But these principles
