Inside the billion-dollar race to patent cannabis

Phylos has chosen to support Big Ag over craft botanists. They took the money
Leafly (US)
Monday, December 9, 2019

cannabis bud2The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has already issued several patents for specific kinds of cannabis and for more wide-ranging “utility patents,”  but so far they’ve gone unenforced and unnoticed. Today’s legal cannabis market is worth an estimated $11 billion. That could easily double within the next few years. Imagine holding a patent that required every grower of a popular strain to pay the patent holder a licensing fee. Biotech startups and Big Ag corporations aren’t imagining—they’re planning. With federal legalization looming, some are already filing patent claims on cannabis strains. The bigger players are waiting in the wings, ready to purchase patents and claim ownership of hugely valuable DNA. (See also: Legacy growers defend their strains against a Big Ag takeover)