In Brief:  A trademark that is generally known to refer to the use of a controlled substance cannot be federally registered.

In Brief:   No federal protection for trademarks related to ingesting a banned substance.

Inventor identification gets lost in the haze of a patent application for a cannabis delivery system. %CUT% Michael Pappalardo met Samantha Stevins at a pharmaceutical products trade show. Michael told Samantha about his concept for a new product related to liquid and solid cannabis delivery systems. They agreed to work on it together. Samantha, who is an attorney, suggested that they apply for a patent. When Michael found out that Samantha had named herself as the sole inventor on the patent, he brought suit to add his name as an inventor. The Federal Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of Michael’s case. The court held that there is no cause of action to challenge inventorship until a patent issues. So Michael will have to wait until then to file suit.