From Acapulco Gold To Albino Rhino: The Marijuana Trademark Land Rush

[Maria_Vanessa]

A glimpse into the possible future.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2010...alino-rhino-the-marijuana-trademark-land-rush

From Acapulco Gold To Albino Rhino: The Marijuana Trademark Land Rush

by Jacob Goldstein

A few months back, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office created a new category: "Processed plant matter for medicinal purposes, namely medical marijuana."
That set off a rush of new trademark applications from people in the 14 states where sales of medical marijuana is legal.
But there's this central tension that keeps coming up with medical marijuana: Despite those state laws, it's still a federal crime to sell the drug.
So officials at the trademark office changed their minds last week and decided to kill the medical marijuana category, the WSJ reports today.
But as of this morning, searching for medical marijuana on the patent office website still turned up dozens of trademark applications submitted before the office got rid of the category.
Some of the names seem so well-established that it's hard to imagine someone could have gotten a trademark, even if the patent office had let the category stand. (Somebody wanted to trademark "Chronic.") Other names are less familiar — "420 Honey," for example.
Here's a list of some of the marijuana trademarks people tried to register:

• Chronic
• IslandSweetSkunk
• 420 Honey
• Beingkind
• RutBud
• Emerald Triangle Bud
• Bubba Kush
• Panama Gold
• OG Kush
• Red Bud
• Delta 9
• Purple Haze
• Albino Rhino
• Diesel
• Maui Wowie
• Thaistick
• Panama Red
• Acapulco Gold

 

[nomaad]

very interesting. thanks for the post.

 

[Lone Wolf]

im glad they scrapped it.... wait till the rest of the country "legalizes" first...

 

[BigBudBill]

International Oddities already has(have had for many many years) a ton of strain names trademarked. They have been advertising fake weed for years. Rumor has it, that it is a front for trademarked names that can be switched(or the rights to the name sold,traded, etc) to Cannabis strains at the appropriate time. What do you think?

 

[Rednick]

Rumor has it, that it is a front for trademarked names that can be switched(or the rights to the name sold,traded, etc) to Cannabis strains at the appropriate time. What do you think?

Crafty bastards.

Trademarks can be transferred. The company can decide how they want to use their TM.
Patents cannot. The Patent Office decides how the patent is applied, and usually it is a long process of back and forth with the patent office until satisfaction.

Coca Cola, Gatorade, ect change their formulas. But the TM remains.

 

[BagseedSamurai]

Interesting..

 

[Maria_Vanessa]

From a cannabis perspective, it's also a bit disturbing. There are different nicknames for phenotypic varieties, but it's still the same old genetic cannabis. I can just imagine if cannabis did become legal in the U.S., the possibilities of genetic varieties of cannabis that would be created.

I read in the NY Times today that Oakland has just given the green-light on industrial style cannabis farming. Just imagine if Monsanto did something on such a large scale, the way we see corn and soybean? Think about a company like this selling, well, really forcing, a farmer or grower into a contract to grow and harvest their seeds and only their seeds? Imagine if different seed companies around the world, with large laboratories, surpassing the boundaries of THC harvesting. This is something that can affect the current or future home grower who may buy seed from a commericial seed bank or get them from a bag, if the bagseed came from parents of commerical seed bank, the recreational and medical consumer and hemp industrialist.

Specifically, one scenario pops into my mind. For example, Breeder Joe has been breeding and selling phenotypic seeds that he has created for 10 years. And he's given his own creation different nicknames and such. Then cannabis is declared legal. Breeder Joe is very happy becuase he can now sell all the seeds he wants without being arrested, but he doesn't stop to think that made he should be hiring a team of lawyers to see if he can patent all of the hard work he has done for the past 10 years. And of course, the odds are high that maybe he hasn't been keeping paper and electronic records of all scientific work. And now, thanks to the son of the CEO of a multinational company, who just happens to be a cannabis smoker, the multinational company is able to successsfully apply and be rewarded patents that the breeder would have had.

So, okay, maybe that was an extreme scenario. But, patents are worth alot of money because they usually last a decade or more. I wish people would pay more attention to these specific legal isssues.

 

[chef]

"Force" a farmer to grow? better pack a lunch

Cannabis = Landrace, everything else = Heirlooms & they are everywhere! if you look...

 

[binaryfission]

@MariaVanessa - I'm sure you know, but this is already happening with basmati rice. Big Agra patents the rice and then tries to charge the farmers who, have selectively bred the rice for centuries.

sad stuff and it could happen to us.

link http://www.biotech-info.net/basmati_patent.html

 

[ibuster57]

Back in the 70s big tobacco claimed a lot of cannabis trademarks. People were sure decriminalization was just around the corner. Then came Regan.

 

[SOTF420]

Gonna go apply for the Sweet Tooth patent! ha

 

[ksmokey]

hmm... I could've sworn that you can't patent lifeforms? however, the supreme court fucked up in a BIG WAY by granting the owners of specific manmade genes (Monsanto's genes in corn) to then own the thing (corn). the danger arises when corporations start to screw around and insert their own modified genes into existing cannabis strains. these genes can then be passed on to other strains (that others may have worked hard to create) through breeding and suddenly X Corp. would then own every strain with their patented gene in it.

can i get some peer review here? haha

EDIT***

oops, my bad guys. plant breeding IS patentable but naturally occurring strains that are NOT the product of human intervention are not patentable.

 

[nomaad]

that is how it works. many farmers have been ruined by monsanto for growing canola that's been pollinated by Roundup Ready (tm) canola. The seed from the Monsanto owned canola flies off the top of transport trucks all over farm country and randomly pollinates all over the place. The seed kept by those unlucky farms has been deemed the property of Monsanto.

Even more disturbing are "terminator genetics." Monsanto and other major seed companies are genetically engineering their seed to be viable for only one generation, rendered incapable of producing viable seed. If these genetics were to jump into the mainstream food supply... well... goes without saying. Disaster.

 

[Dopeboy668]

Makes me sick thinking about companies like Monsanto getting into the Mj business. Begining of the end if that happened.

 

[nomaad]

Here is where it gets tricky for me because I try to keep an open mind to opposing thought, even when I am passionately dedicated to my own point of view. Richard Lee and the Oaksterdam movement, for the most part, would claim to be following their monopolistic path precisely in support of this same eventuality that has us petrified. Now, while it IS convenient propaganda, I don't doubt for a second that this is true.

Marijuana may be about to become big mainstream business. Would I prefer Richard Lee, playing his game at the top of the mainstream industry rather than Monsanto? Yup. Hate to say it, but just about any of us would say the same. Again, it's very convenient propaganda for the Oaksterdam agenda, but somebody is going to licensed to grow in each county, or nobody at all. The central valley seems to be against MMJ, but Monsanto already has a vast lobbying machine in place. If its legalized and Monsanto or Con Agra chooses to take over those markets, they will probably have the clout to do so. Who can say if they are behind the anti-pot stance in the first place, waiting for national acceptance and then suddenly the local supes are pot friendly... welcome to the table for the big boys.

Unless something better... something more LOCAL and something more impassioned starts to materialize out in the provinces, it will be Lee or something worse.

Who is stepping up?

 

[GrnMtFinn]

it's too bad that many of those seedy politicians don't see the good and pure. sure, the inevitable future marijuana industry might be great for business, but i foresee the tainting of pot farming. a politician couldn't look at a plant with the same appreciation as a grower of the kind bud. What the fuck America? something went wrong a while ago. nomaad, you're right. the only fix is local. the entire human race is waging war with the earth, competing and stomping out all other species. local agriculture on the small scale (preferably the organic way) is the only way to reverse this total down-spiraling shithole of a mess we have and CONTINUE to create.

 

[ksmokey]

Who is stepping up?

The way I see it... Smaller, local growers aren't unified behind a single voice or organization so they aren't able to utilize whatever strengths (numbers, experience, etc) they may have.

This is precisely the time when local growers need to pool their strengths to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by the likes of Con Agra or Monsanto but local growers may also be afraid to get TOO organized because of the conflicting federal laws - and the fact that there's always collective action problems.

If you can overcome this initial collective action problem, the "body" that results can pool resources to get themselves lawyers and other professionals to be competitive against the giant corps. I'm not sure how popular this would be but I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with this.

From what I understand cooperatives of grocery stores down south use these types of organizational schemes to be competitive with the large national chains. I'm not sure how organized or how large the various growing coops are in california but unless there is some sort of organized presence, I don't think its very likely that smaller local growers will last very long against the big corporate types.

 

[ksmokey]

it's too bad that many of those seedy politicians don't see the good and pure. sure, the inevitable future marijuana industry might be great for business, but i foresee the tainting of pot farming. a politician couldn't look at a plant with the same appreciation as a grower of the kind bud. What the fuck America? something went wrong a while ago. nomaad, you're right. the only fix is local. the entire human race is waging war with the earth, competing and stomping out all other species. local agriculture on the small scale (preferably the organic way) is the only way to reverse this total down-spiraling shithole of a mess we have and CONTINUE to create.

Have you ever watched "The Corporation" ? Its a documentary on Hulu that, I think, answers your questions quite well. I think things started going downhill when people started hiding behind the corporate veil so that the morality of their actions couldn't be seen by the general public.

What do you really expect when you let people (who are inherently flawed) run super powerful, undying, ultra-organized, money making machines? The earth gets raped, the masses get fucked and manipulated and deceived.

I'm not saying that the idea of collectivizing resources to accomplish large projects that individuals cannot accomplish themselves is a bad idea... but maybe they should have written in a CONSCIENCE? I mean, Corporations do not follow the most basic rules of ethics or morality. And yet they are super powerful, legally created zombies with an unquenchable thirst for $$$$

All this happened way before our time but here we are...

 

[nomaad]

The way I see it... Smaller, local growers aren't unified behind a single voice or organization so they aren't able to utilize whatever strengths (numbers, experience, etc) they may have.

This is precisely the time when local growers need to pool their strengths to keep themselves from being overwhelmed by the likes of Con Agra or Monsanto but local growers may also be afraid to get TOO organized because of the conflicting federal laws - and the fact that there's always collective action problems.

If you can overcome this initial collective action problem, the "body" that results can pool resources to get themselves lawyers and other professionals to be competitive against the giant corps. I'm not sure how popular this would be but I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with this.

From what I understand cooperatives of grocery stores down south use these types of organizational schemes to be competitive with the large national chains. I'm not sure how organized or how large the various growing coops are in california but unless there is some sort of organized presence, I don't think its very likely that smaller local growers will last very long against the big corporate types.

sure. you're talking about the elementary challenges of organizing. now who's going to start doing it?

ksmokey: The solution is to revoke corporate personhood. Its not even a court decision that grants it. Its a note, attached to a court decision, written by a clerk, that grants it in the first place.

 

[binaryfission]

sure. you're talking about the elementary challenges of organizing. now who's going to start doing it?

me, will you help? any of you?

@ksmokey: I like the idea of the community joining together but do we need another group for people to be scared of? (think unions) What can't we just control the money with simple economics. WE still buy the product, or our friends do. Why can't we set up standards to reduce or even eliminate the advantage of large corporations and or agra-biz.

What if we as consumers stood together and demanded "equitably Hand Trimmed" Pot. No machine trimmers. How is any company going to hire enough trimmers to cut 60#'s a day. Even if they could this greatly diminishes their profit margin and in turn makes it easier for the small grower to retain his local market share.

I'm not proposing a bureaucracy for the sake of collective bargaining; essentially a union. I am proposing we as a community get together and set the standards of production now. WE set the table we want to eat at.

Please follow the link and take the poll. Tell your friends. Talk to the growers you know. Especially anyone growing OD. They jumped on the "Organic" band wagon. Why not this one?


https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=182493 check this thread out.