The Oregon wine and cannabis industries can’t seem to get along. Where some see a natural synergy, others see undesirable competition. And as a RICO case filed in the Oregon federal court last week makes clear, Momtazi Family, LLC v. Yamhill Naturals, LLC, et al., No. 3-19-cv-00476-BR, some see only a criminal enterprise. At first…
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BREAKING NEWS: 24 Cities Sue California Over Statewide Cannabis Delivery Rule
CaliforniaUncategorized April 6, 2019
As expected (and as we’ve written about here), California cities have joined forces to fight the State’s regulation allowing delivery of cannabis in every jurisdiction. Here is a copy of the complaint. The lawsuit was filed in Fresno County Superior Court against the California Bureau of Cannabis Control and its chief, Lori Ajax. The local…
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Last week the federal district court in Oregon dismissed with prejudice the plaintiffs’ amended complaint in Ainsworth v. Owenby, Case 6:17-cv-1935. As you may recall, this is one of several cases tracked by this blog in which a group of residential property owners displeased with alleged deleterious effects of a marijuana production or processing facility…
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Those who have been running businesses in the cannabis industry for years, as well as those that are working hard to become licensed, know it is not a simple task to stay in compliance with state and local regulations. The complexity of such regulations can cause businesses to inadvertently make mistakes, which can lead to…
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Last Thursday, in one of the few (to our knowledge) contested cases heard by the OLCC concerning cannabis, the OLCC accepted unanimously the findings of a state Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) and denied an application for a recreational marijuana producer license. You can read the press release here. The decision merits comment as a case…
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Oregon Cannabis Litigation: What’s Discovery Got to Do With It?
OregonRecreational MarijuanaUncategorized March 21, 2019
Recently, we wrote about the increasing frequency of litigating cannabis business disputes in the courts, noting several possible causes for this change from the early days when private arbitration was the preferred forum. Meanwhile, the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC) is beginning to treat violators of the rules governing recreational marijuana much more seriously. One…
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Cannabis Dispute? Courts are Open
Medical MarijuanaRecreational MarijuanaUncategorized March 9, 2019
Back in 2015, I wrote on this blog that we were never not litigating cannabis business disputes. That is still true today, although the forums have changed: matters are now resolved through the court system more frequently than before, when private arbitration was preferred. This is partly because the prevailing view among cannabis business attorneys…
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Cannabis Patent Litigation Update: Is Extraction and Preparation Prior Art?
Uncategorized March 4, 2019
About six months ago, we posted news of the first ever cannabis patent infringement case. As a reminder, the case was initiated by United Cannabis Corporation (“UCANN”) in the United States District Court, District of Colorado against its in-state competitor, Pure Hemp Collective Inc. (“Pure Hemp”). The subject patent is U.S.P. 9,730,911 – “cannabis extracts…
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UPS Sues Multiple Cannabis Delivery Companies for Trademark Infringement
Uncategorized February 17, 2019
As ardent followers of this blog are well aware, one of my favorite pastimes is keeping tabs on who is suing whom in the cannabis industry for trademark infringement. These lawsuits serve as great examples for my clients of what NOT to do when choosing a brand for their company. The last couple of years…
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Federal Court Dismisses RICO Suit Against Sonoma County Cannabis Cultivator
CaliforniaUncategorized January 28, 2019
For a while, criminal conspiracy lawsuits against cannabis operations looked like a potentially promising strategy for cannabis prohibitionists to try and use litigation to reverse the trend of legalization. The idea is to use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (“RICO”), a federal statute intended to combat organized crime–and which allows private rights of…
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