Among the host of uncertainties they face, cannabis industry entrepreneurs might wonder if they can patent marijuana products — after all, they are still illegal at the federal level. It may come as a relief then, to find out that the US Patent Office has been issuing cannabis-related patents since 1942. Nearly 1,500 cannabis patent applications have been filed, more than half in the last 25 years.

About half of the requests were approved and some of those have expired, leaving about 500 currently active cannabis-related patents.David Cohen, PhD, an independent patent agent in Oakland, California, works with medical device and cannabis patents.

Here, we ask him what types of patents are being issued, who’s filing for them and where the biggest opportunities in cannabis-patenting may be. Contact him at cohendc@comcast.net

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Source: US Patent Office Issuing Cannabis Patents To A Growing Market