Maine looks to protect marijuana firms’ intellectual property

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In a move to protect marijuana business owners’ trade secrets and other proprietary information from competitors, Maine lawmakers plan to consider a proposal from state regulators to exempt that type of information from being available to the public.

The state’s Office of Marijuana Policy is recommending that such industry information be kept out of public records.

Concerns about protecting intellectual property and trademark information has long been an issue in the cannabis space.

Maine regulators believe proprietary information such as marijuana edibles recipes should not be available to competitors, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Supporters of the exemption maintain the measure would prevent a huge wave of public records requests from marijuana businesses seeking competitors’ information.

Freedom of Information Act requests, which seek the release of public information, are being “used as a weapon between competitors,” lawyer Matt Warner told the Press Herald.

Recreational marijuana sales are expected to begin this spring in Maine.

– Associated Press