Cannabis Intellectual Property: Patents and Trademarks

Agenda / Content Covered

1. Controlled Substance Act and State Law Primer
2. Cannabis Intellectual Property Licensing
3. Intellectual Property Litigation

4. Getting Patent Applications Past the USPTO
5. Trademark Applications for Cannabis and Derived or Related Products
   1. State Filings and Common Law Rights
   2. What Marks the USPTO Will and Will Not Approve
   3. Application Best Practices and Wording Tips

Accreditation Details:

DR. DALE C. HUNT is a plant scientist, a cannabis lawyer, and registered U.S. patent attorney with over 20 years of experience protecting plant varieties in the United States and throughout the world. Dr. Hunt is the founder of Plant & Planet Law Firm, an intellectual poperty law practice, where he provides guidance and expertise on patents and IP matters, and aids clients in establishing IP protection for their legal marijuana cultivars, products, and businesses. Before he began working in the legal Cannabis industry, Dr. Hunt worked with other clients in agriculture, water purification, alternative energies, biotechnology, and medicine; and he helped many of his clients commercialize their IP, products, and plant varieties internationally. Through Plant & Planet Law Firm, he and his team continue to service these clients in addition to their cannabis clients. Dr. Hunt has degrees in botany (BS), plant genetics (MS) molecular & cellular biology (PhD), and law (JD). He has spoken on cannabis-related topics at several gatherings including the Marijuana Business Convention, Emerald Cup, National Meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers, Meadowlands Leadership Summit, Perrin Conference on Emerging Legal Trends in the Cannabis Industry, and San Diego chapters of the MIT Enterprise Forum and the Licensing Executives Society. Dr. Hunt has also been interviewed for and quoted in numerous news articles and by national media outlets on the topic of marijuana and patenting.

GRIFFEN J. THORNE is a corporate and transactional attorney in Harris Bricken's Los Angeles office where he advises clients across a wide variety of domestic and international industries, including technology; real estate; healthcare; wellness and lifestyle; entertainment; and cannabis, hemp CBD, and other new drug therapies. Mr. Thorne advises businesses at all stages from startup to sale. He regularly provides guidance to companies and founders on entity formation and corporate governance issues; and drafts and negotiates a wide array of commercial transactions, such as intellectual property license agreements, real estate leases, company and asset purchase, and sale and other supply chain agreements, and loan and finance agreements. He also assists clients with specific regulatory issues, from applying for competitive and non-competitive local and state government licenses through day-to-day regulatory compliance. Mr. Thorne began his career litigating high-stakes intellectual property and commercial litigation cases at one of the largest law firms in the United States, where he argued motions before state and federal courts and the California Court of Appeals. As a former litigator, he is intimately familiar with common contract negotiation and drafting issues that can lead to business and contract disputes. Mr. Thorne was one of the leading vice chairs in the first panel of the Los Angeles County Bar Association's Cannabis Section, and he writes weekly for the Canna Law Blog and has written a variety of cannabis-related articles for a number of legal publications. Prior to beginning his legal career, he studied music at the University of California, Berkeley. After Berkeley, he attended law school at Loyola University of Chicago, where he was the editor-in-chief of the Loyola University Chicago Law Journal.