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•Are copyright notices being properly used?
•Is the company using third party materials or do any of its works incorporate materials created by third parties (e.g., music, artwork, images, photographs, etc.)? If so, does the company have appropriate permission to use materials or is it at risk for a copyright infringement claim?
•Have any cease and desist letters or other demands been received and has litigation been threatened?
Patents
The term patent is a government-granted right allowing the patent owner to prohibit others from making, using, selling, and/or importing an invention for a specific period of time, usually twenty years. A utility patentable invention is "any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof." Patentable inventions could include compositions such as edible or beverage form cannabis products like marijuana infused gummies, mechanical devices such as metered-dose cannabis inhalers such as SYQETM or PAX® vaporizer cartridges, home grow devices such as those marketed by Seedo, cannabis processing and extraction methods, methods of reintroducing extracted terpenes to extracts, genetically modified marijuana plants with increased oils for better flavors and enhanced highs, software, methods of manufacture, and medical processes and uses for cannabis, such as treatments for an illness such as epilepsy.
A plant patent covers a new variety of plant that can be duplicated through asexual reproduction and is not naturally occurring. Plant patent rights are available for new cannabis plant strains and varieties. These rights give the breeder the exclusive right to use, reproduce, sell, or offer for sale the plants or any of its parts, e.g., seeds, cuttings, divisions, etc.
The term patent can also refer to a "design patent," which covers the ornamental features of an article of manufacture, such as unique packaging features or the aesthetic design of a vape pen, and lasts for 14 years.
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