USPTO Sparks Hopes For Marijuana Trademark Registration Then Snuffs Them Out
In an article in the Wall Street Journal yesterday, Justin Scheck, described the short lived trademark category for marijuana. The article reports that the USPTO plans on ‘shutting things down’ by the end of the month, but apparently there was a brief period in which the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office created a new trademark category dedicated to medical marijuana, spurring a hoards of applications from people and businesses in the 14 states where the drug is legal for medicinal purposes. Among the trademarks: Chronic, Mellow Yellow, and Maui Wowie.
The trademark agency said it was “highly unlikely” that the office would grant a medical marijuana trademark anytime soon because a product must be legal for interstate trade to be eligible for trademark protection…and so it goes. An interesting but at least for now academic argument is whether whether long-used names for the drug could be trademarked if..uh it was legal it sell it.
An entire specialty, up in smoke. (Couldn’t resist…)