Two marijuana companies both named “Harvest” are heading to court over the rights to the title, and both are claiming trademark protections for their respective companies.
The case is far from the only cannabis dispute over a company name.
One key to the Harvest case may be that the California-based company has a state trademark for its name dating to June 2018, while the Arizona-based Harvest received a federal trademark for its company name in 2017, according to San Francisco radio station KQED.
The case is coming to a head now in part because the Arizona-based Harvest is in the process of expanding into California.
The firm’s parent company, Harvest Health & Recreation, is publicly traded on the Canadian Securities Exchange as HARV.
Arizona Harvest’s expansion began recently with a shop in Napa, California, and has plans to open six more retail locations across the state.
The company’s CEO told KQED that “no court case is going to dissuade us from moving heavily into California.”
The California Harvest, meanwhile, contends that it’s been in operation since at least 2016 in San Francisco and that its state trademarks give it the right to continue using its name and logo.
A similar dispute also is unfolding in Northern California, where a hemp clothing maker and cannabis farmer is suing a well-known MJ manufacturer over the name “Satori.”
