Jonathan Hyman and Jonathan Menkes, who co-chair Knobbe Martens’ CBD and legal cannabis group, were quoted by World Trademark Review (WTR) in the article, “FTC clamps down on copycat edible cannabis products.” The article discusses the U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) recent actions in trying to prevent the sale of edible cannabis products that mimic the packages of well-known snacks and sweets brands. The FTC is working in partnership with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to try to protect children who may mistakenly ingest high doses of THC, due to product confusion.
“This is a very common problem in the food and beverage industry,” said Hyman. While most of the products are purchased by adults who are aware of the ingredients within the product, there exists a risk to consumers that these products could be found and ingested by children who do not know the ingredients and would get sick ingesting them. He advises for brands to “be attuned to these risks and take proactive measures to try to find them and get them removed from the market.”
Menkes adds that enforcement can be challenging, saying, “the prospect of recovering any money, even if a judgement for damages is awarded by the court, is not high.” On how food and beverage companies can take a proactive approach on enforcement, Menkes says, “these food and beverage companies need to be prepared to increase their enforcement budgets to account for these additional ‘sunk costs’, which can be significant, particularly in major markets such as California where there is unfortunately a thriving illicit market.”
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