Скачать или смотреть IP Strategies, Enforcement, and Ethical Pitfalls in Virginia’s (Quasi-)Legal Cannabis Industry

Presented by Larry Sandell to the Virginia State Bar's IP Section on May 11, 2021. (CLE credit not available from recorded presentation)


Speaker information: https://www.meimark.com/attorney/larr...
Presentation PDF: https://www.meimark.com/wp-content/up...


Summary: Notwithstanding its illegality under Federal law, cannabis oil is legal under Virginia law for medical purposes, and cannabis for adult recreational use in the Commonwealth is poised to be legalized very soon. The tension between state and federal law (and the newness of a legal cannabis industry) raises ethical pitfalls for attorneys seeking to represent cannabis industry clients. Like most states, Virginia’s Rules of Professional Conduct prohibit assisting “a client in conduct that the lawyer knows is criminal” and thereby raise potentially thorny ethical questions. And IP attorneys must mind other ethical considerations: For example, given the relative scarcity of published prior art in the cannabis industry, patent attorneys should be extra vigilant in disclosing known prior public uses to the USPTO; and Trademark practitioners must take care to ensure that their clients’ marks' uses in commerce are Federally legal.