Although the trend for legalization is that cannabis and its derivatives are still illegal under federal jurisdiction in the US as a Schedule 1 controlled substance however, you should know that this does not act as a bar for filing for patents for cannabis technology. A legal precedent supports plant patents. However, patent protection is not limited to non-natural inventions, which opens the door for wide-reaching cannabis-related patents. Let us see more about this and also find out why you should book a cannabis patent attorney free consultation to file a patent.
Cannabis plants with variations are being patented every day. You can patent cannabis in two ways: the plant patent, in which a parent plant is patented so that you can control all of its direct descendants, and the other one is a utility patent, that has a broader protection over any cannabis plant that fulfills the criteria described in the patent. A cannabis patent attorney free consultation can help you understand more about this.
As the legalization of cannabis is relatively recent, there is no legal precedent for the legal enforcement of the cannabis plants. Hence, legalization is, so far, purely a state-by-state process. Moreover, seeking the protection of your patent in court is a costly measure and a lengthy fight with document production, discovery, hiring of experts, and lengthy trials. Cannabis businesses need to consider these costs before filing a lawsuit against a patent infringer.
Cannabis patients are granted by the US Patent Office only to those who apply them for pharmaceutical uses of cannabis or compounds utilized for treating disease or pain. The US Patent Office has granted patents for inventions that require the possession of cannabis.
How to Obtain a Cannabis Patent?
- Utility patent: The utility patent for a cannabis plant specifically includes the plant and its seeds and the methods by which it is bred, cultivated, and processed. The patent application should also include instructions on how to replicate the plant. Some of them also include blueprints or schematics for an invention. Since it is more difficult to do this with a living thing like a plant, the US Patent Office has allowed the submission of seeds to an international authority like a vault or seed bank.
- Plant protection: These are less broad in their projections and pertain only to a specific sexually produced plant and its direct descendants. Utility protections can also protect sexually produced plants and offer broader protections.
How to Apply for a Cannabis Planet?
First, to make sure that your invention or idea has not yet been patented, you can search the US Patent Office’s database. You also need to ensure that your cannabis strain or process is novel so that you don’t waste money and time on an application that will eventually be denied due to being duplicative. Also, looking at other patent applications will give you an idea of the information needed and what you should include to differentiate your product from your competitors.
Your next step will be finding an experienced cannabis patent attorney, as you will need counsel on the steps to apply for this patent. Keep in mind that filing for a cannabis patent is a technical matter. Someone with experience in this field will help you in getting it through and granted. You will also have to contact an attorney if you ever need to enforce your patent.
After this, you need to do the foundational work of determining the kind of patent that you are applying for. It is better to apply for a utility patent since it offers the broadest protections. File a provisional application in order to hold your spot and also ensure that no one can beat you in a patent race where competitors may discover some product similar to yours.
An experienced patent attorney can help you in completing the formal application and participate in the patent process to keep it moving. After your patent is granted, you can enforce it as needed to retain the protections that you wish to hold over your invention.
What are the Most Common Cannabis Patents?
While there are multitudes of cannabis patents in the database of the US Patent Office, the most common ones are:
- Strains and plants that include methods of cultivating them and equipment needed to do so.
- Medical uses of cannabis in the use of treating diseases and pain.
- Methods of processing cannabis plants include the processing of their active ingredients.
- The products of cannabis cultivation include oils, extracts, food, supplements, beverages, veterinary products, cosmetics, etc.
Summing Up
One thing you should know is that the cannabis patents in the database are not about how noteworthy they are. The applicant should make sure that the invention they are seeking a patent for is new, useful, and not obvious. It should provide enough information for others to understand and replicate it.
