The Stanley Brothers in Colorado made their name by targeting a strain called Charlotte’s Web that had greater amounts of CBD than THC in order to treat a young girl with a rare form of epilepsy. The girl, Charlotte Figi, suffered from Dravet Syndrome that caused her to have multiple seizures in a single day. This strain of cannabis seemed to quell the seizures and allowed her to live a better life. Sadly, Figi recently passed away.
The company called the strain Charlotte’s Web in her honor and even changed its name to Charlotte’s Web Holding Inc. (OTC:CWBHF). Then the company attempted to trademark the name Charlotte’s Web, but was rejected. In October 2019, the United States Patent & Trademark Office rejected the trademark application for “Charlotte’s Web” in a nonfinal Office Action. The USPTO specifically found that the name “Charlotte’s Web identifies a particular strain of low THC, high CBD content Cannabis sativa plants” does not function as a trademark.
CBD company AAXLL contends that anyone can use the name Charlotte’s Web since it isn’t trademarked. The company believes that CWI made “a serious mistake in adopting the generic name of a strain as its corporate and brand name since everyone has the right to use the name of a strain.”
The logic here is that no company can trademark a specific strain of cannabis. No one company can own the Jack Herer or Purple Kush or Girl Scout Cookies. However, master growers often apply for patents on strains they create as intellectual property. GW Pharmaceuticals (GWPH) has numerous patent applications for various cannabis drug combinations. Since the federal government is loathe to trademark anything related to marijuana, states stepped in to protect various brand names.
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