Live data from Hacker News

Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

gq.com

11–20 of 68 posts

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#11
I once had an economics professor who insisted the bigger hurdle to marijuana legalization was monetizing it. It's a quite unique cash crop in that it only takes a small area and small amout of labor to produce large supply. His words, paraphrased: "You can grow enough marijuana in your basement to meet the demands of your whole neighborhood! And it's a difficult thing to patent to use IP ownership as a revenue model..."

Looks like BioTech Institute LLC (and I'm sure lots of others) are trying to address the second point.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#12
post #11

I once had an economics professor who insisted the bigger hurdle to marijuana legalization was monetizing it. It's a quite unique cash crop in that it only takes a small area and small amout of labor to produce large supply. His words, paraphrased: "You can grow enough marijuana in your basement to meet the demands of your whole neighborhood! And it's a difficult thing to patent to use IP ownership as a revenue model…

Similar to tobacco - which has a bunch of regulations associated with growing it for sale.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#13

I went ahead and looked up these patents. This one looks particularly bad: https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164 This basically grants them a patent on every single cannabis plant which has >3% THC and CBD, and which Myrcene is not the dominant terpine. Can anyone who knows their bud say which strains this could be applied to? Also, the specification on this is HUGE. This represents a large investment; they're goi…

Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht...

Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#14
Headline of this evening's South China Morning Post: How China Quietly Grew Into a Cannabis Superpower

http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2108347/green...

Article states that more than half of the 600 patents related to cannabis are held in China. Unclear if they relate to industrial hemp or medicinal uses.

The race to get coveted FDA approval is even more heated. If GW Pharmaceuticals' stock price is any indication, it may be first out the gate with its CBD-based epilepsy treatment, Epidiolex.

A powerful drug derived from marijuana is on the cusp of federal approval

http://www.businessinsider.com/marijuana-epilepsy-drug-2017-...

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#15

I went ahead and looked up these patents. This one looks particularly bad: https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164 This basically grants them a patent on every single cannabis plant which has >3% THC and CBD, and which Myrcene is not the dominant terpine. Can anyone who knows their bud say which strains this could be applied to? Also, the specification on this is HUGE. This represents a large investment; they're goi…

Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht... Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

The PTO is not charged with enforcing patents, that's what the courts are for.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#16

I went ahead and looked up these patents. This one looks particularly bad: https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164 This basically grants them a patent on every single cannabis plant which has >3% THC and CBD, and which Myrcene is not the dominant terpine. Can anyone who knows their bud say which strains this could be applied to? Also, the specification on this is HUGE. This represents a large investment; they're goi…

Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht... Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

Legal marijuana will push out illegal marijuana. Large, industrial farms will outcompete anyone who is growing illegally.

And that is going to make it much easier to regulate. Patents have the potential to pick the winners in this industry if they are handed out irresponsibily.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#17
post #11

I once had an economics professor who insisted the bigger hurdle to marijuana legalization was monetizing it. It's a quite unique cash crop in that it only takes a small area and small amout of labor to produce large supply. His words, paraphrased: "You can grow enough marijuana in your basement to meet the demands of your whole neighborhood! And it's a difficult thing to patent to use IP ownership as a revenue model…

It's also extremely simple to produce enough alcohol for your entire neighborhood in your basement with a home-made still.

That has not stopped the monetization of alcohol...

People who want to make billions from this will simply lobby until there are extremely strict laws in place to protect their profits, and then also lobby to make sure there are wars and extremely strict punishments for violators of those laws.

Re: Trying to corner the market on legal marijuana

#18

I went ahead and looked up these patents. This one looks particularly bad: https://www.google.com/patents/US9370164 This basically grants them a patent on every single cannabis plant which has >3% THC and CBD, and which Myrcene is not the dominant terpine. Can anyone who knows their bud say which strains this could be applied to? Also, the specification on this is HUGE. This represents a large investment; they're goi…

Myrcene is the dominant terpene in all strains of cannabis according to this study: http://www.internationalhempassociation.org/jiha/jiha4208.ht... Cannabis has been cultivated and sold illegally in the US for almost a century. It seems unlikely that the USPTO would be able to enforce compliance when law enforcement has not.

Unfortunately, this study is from 1997 and is out of date. This study from 2011 suggests that at least some strains do not have Myrcene as the dominant terpene: https://www.fundacion-canna.es/en/variations-terpene-profile...
Post reply on HN