Mile High Labs alleges copyright infringement in tobacco deal

Mile High Labs, a CBD extraction company in Loveland, Colorado, is suing a Rhode Island firm for stealing its extraction technology to secure investment from a tobacco company investing in hemp.

Mile High says in its copyright-infringement lawsuit filed Tuesday that privately held CBD extractor Canadian American Standard Hemp (CASH) used work created by Mile High Labs to secure an investment from Turning Point Brands, one of several tobacco companies investing in hemp and CBD.

Mile High is suing both CASH and Turning Point for unspecified damages.

Turning Point, a tobacco company in Louisville, Kentucky, bought a 19.99% ownership stake in CASH in November. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Turning Point cited declining tobacco sales in announcing the deal, while praising CASH’s “highly proprietary materials-processing technology.”

Mile High CEO Jason Roth said he recognized that technology as his own when he saw the announcement.

According to the lawsuit filed in a federal court in Florida, CASH “blatantly copied” Mile High Labs’ CBD extraction process in the deal.

CASH allegedly copied photographs, machinery details and production techniques used by Mile High Labs to raise $35 million in a Series A offering just a month before.

Turning Point and CASH have not yet replied to the lawsuit.

Turning Point trades on the New York Stock Exchange as TPB.