Hemp News

Protecting Your Hemp Intellectual Property

Published on April 22, 2020

Protecting Your Hemp Intellectual Property

The non-profit organization Agricultural Genomics Foundation (AGF) and The Fat Pig Society (FPS) want to invite you to participate in a third party neutral project that will protect hemp farmers by accelerating the identification, validation and listing of clonally maintained CBD hemp plants. We intend to help identify hemp plants with the highest production and the lowest risk, while ensuring that your Intellectual property rights and royalties are protected.

Intellectual property (IP) protection for hemp varieties is rapidly becoming the new hot spot in the hemp green rush. At the same time, hemp regulators are cracking down on the sales of seeds and clones that put farmers at risk. Regulations that mandate hemp to be a certified variety as defined by the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (“AOSCA”) has already passed in many States.

The Hemp industry needs a third party neutral Certification organization, like Underwriters Laboratory Certification for electrical appliances. An unsafe appliance can kill a consumer, and high THC hemp can kill a farm.

We established a simple two-step process in order to participate:

Sign the attached “Material transfer agreement” and pay the $175 fee per plant ($165 for >100; $150 for >1000). Please make checks payable to Fat Pig Society with Genomic Selection on the Memo line.
Assure seed delivery by May 15th, 2020 or clone delivery by June 1st, 2020 to the following address: Fat Pig Society 317 North Hollywood Street Fort Collins, CO 80521. All clones must be pest free.

Our team will cultivate your plants in the Certified Organic container test field, and with the Organic Integrated Pest Management developed by the Colorado State University (CSU). Thus, all of the plants in our program will be USDA certified organic.

You will receive two (2) copies of each plant that will be propagated and clonally maintained in vegetative state that will serve as your future foundation plant stock. You will also receive a copy of the chemotype testing results, and a copy of all of the phenotypic (physical) traits we measured. This data contains all the necessary information to enter the Colorado Certified Hemp trials, file for a listing with the Association of Official Seed Certifying Agencies (AOSCA) and to file for Intellectual Property at USDA/PVP or USPTO.

Besides being part of the first-of its kind program in the entire country, other benefits of participating in this project include:

-We can identify if you were cross pollinated with marijuana, kill them, and return the low risk plants for breeders to restart your seed line (or clones).

– Our project will help you shorten the path to seed stabilization by growing a seed line and allow you to pick out those closest to the breeding target for the next breeding cycle.

– You can decide if you want to proceed to file IP or AOSCA, and we will provide the application materials, and all of the necessary information about filing fees estimates, and legal costs. Please Note that we can not fill out applications for plants that test >0.3% THC.

– the data collected about your plants will be part of scientific studies conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado (CU) Boulder in collaboration with AGF.

– If we identify a patentable clone variety, you can proceed to full commercialization, Phase 2, of this program. All participants will receive the estimated costs (including the estimated legal fees) and all forms for this next step. Phase 2 includes: Filing for Intellectual property protection- IP; filing for variety listing with AOSCA; entry in the Colorado Certified Hemp program; plant genome sequencing with posterior analysis by scientists from CU Boulder; patent defense through gene sequencing to identify unauthorized use; and field trials to identify secondary factors like cannabinoid yield per acre, insect and disease resistance, terpenes, etc.

Meet the Team:

Terry Moran– Project Director- Created and regulated the Nation’s first Certified Hemp Seed Program at the Colorado Department of Agriculture, and has an extensive background in plant breeding, IP, and listing with AOSCA.

Dr. Daniela Vergara, PhD- President and founder of the Agricultural Genomics Foundation, a 501(C)3 non profit. Daniela is one of the world leaders in Cannabis genomics.

Barbara Campbell– One of the top plant patent attorneys in the USA, that will guide breeders and growers to the best path to IP, including options such as ‘Plant Variety Protection’ through the USDA and ‘Utility or Plant patents’ at the US Patent Office

Bill Althouse– Founder at Fat Pig Society and a Certified organic hemp Farmer. Bill has been selecting for the highest quality hemp CBD clones for over 13 years, has screened over 10,000 individual plants, and has built the test platform and protocols to screen CBD plants at scale.

Iginia Boccalandro– Co-founder of Fat Pig Society and hemp farmer for 8 years. With her extremely approachable personality and knowledge of farming in both the US and South America, Iginia will be in charge of the public relations and administrative work.

Contact- Iginia – 970-325-6556 Email fatpigsociety@gmail.com

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Pre-Order American Hemp Farmer Here
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About Colorado Hemp Company
The Colorado Hemp Company, the producer of the 7th Annual NoCo Hemp Expo (NoCo7), is a leading organization for the advancement and advocacy of hemp farming, processing, production, innovation, education, and legalization in the USA. The entire team is committed to researching and developing alternatives so that hemp can once again thrive and help individuals and communities throughout America and around the globe. The 7th Annual NoCo Hemp Expo will take place August 6-8, 2020, at the National Western Complex in Denver, CO.

Contact
Steven Hoffman, Compass Natural, 303.807.1042, steve@compassnaturalmarketing.com
Morris Beegle, Colorado Hemp Company, 970.541.0448, info@nocohempexpo.com