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Gorilla Glue #4 - Part II

redlaser

Active member
Veteran
thx . but i cant see any options to buy there
The nursery vends through dispensary's

Unless you have a med card in California or know someone who does, you won't be able to purchase. Next year that will change I assume.

So, either travel if not instate, mailing is still a federal offense. No company will do that.
 

~star~crash~

Active member
here's my GG4 mother plant loaded to the gills...i intend to take Fifty cut's off her ...


picture.php
 

Chunkypigs

passing the gas
Veteran
wow, never would have thought there would be this kinda press...
joesy continues to make history.

I can't believe that website is worth fighting them in court though but good luck Grizz and maybe set up a go fund me page for legal defense.

if everyone who smoked GG#4 chipped in a dollar you would have enough money to beat those fuckers.

#BlueSmokeFTW

note: ICmag website changes Gorilla to Guerilla anytime the word is followed by the word "glue" automatically as well as changing JW's name to "Grizz" depending how you spell it, lol. (Mods please google internet wayback machine)

Guerilla Glue lawsuit: Cannabis biz stuck in the middle of branding battle over strain name
The entrepreneurs behind GG Strains built their brand on the popularity of award-winning Guerilla Glue #4. The company that makes Guerilla Glue adhesives wants its name back.


Published: Aug 10, 2017, 8:43 am • Updated: a day ago Comments (28)

By Alicia Wallace, The Cannabist Staff

This origin story is the stuff of legend in the cannabis world.

Back in 2012, A Nevada medical marijuana cultivator working under the under the uniquely spelled pseudonym joesey wales was trimming a new plant born from a happenstance encounter between established strains Chem’s Sister, Sour Dubb and Chocolate Diesel.

The phone rang.

When Whales, whose real name is P******y, answered the call, the resin secreted by the flower caused his hands to stick to the phone like glue.

The hybrid marijuana strain was thus christened: Guerilla Glue #4.

But the branding inspired by what has been called an innocent story of inception has landed the fabled breeders of the highly decorated, extremely potent and wildly popular Guerilla Glue #4 in an even stickier legal situation.


The Guerilla Glue Company — maker of adhesive products such as Guerilla Glue, Gorilla Epoxy and Gorilla Tape — is suing GG Strains LLC, the company founded by P@@@@y and business partner R@@@@@@@n, alleging trademark infringement, dilution, unfair competition and cybersquatting. By licensing and marketing products under “confusingly similar” names, GG Strains is ultimately trading on the reputation and goodwill that the family-run, Sharonville, Ohio-based company built over 23 years of business, according to the March 24 complaint.

Although not the first litigation of its kind in the cannabis industry, the case represents another coming-of-age moment for the maturing legal industry: The fun-loving, guerrilla marketing of marijuana’s underground heyday is now being viewed in the same light as that of traditional industry.

As Guerilla Glue Co. moves to protect a brand built over more than two decades, the entrepreneurs behind GG Strains said a loss wouldn’t just be detrimental to their company, it would also set an awful precedent for intellectual property in the cannabis industry.

“We’re not millionaires, we’re cannabis breeders and cultivators,” GG Strains’ Johnson told The Cannabist. “Most people have backed down from corporate businesses, so no case has set precedent as of yet. Down the line, this (case) will set the precedent.”
No longer an underground concern

The court complaint filed by Guerilla Glue Co. is 140 pages, laden with lists and images of the company’s trademarks juxtaposed with pictures from GG Strains’ state trademark applications, which include cartoon art such as a sunglasses-wearing gorilla smoking a blunt with one hand and holding an award chalice in the other.

Another exhibit includes a screenshot of Facebook search results for “Guerilla Glue” — it shows an alternating mix of posts about repaired coffee mugs and images of trichome-covered nugs.

GG Strains’ apparent ambitions with respect to continued use and growth of the name has increased as medical and recreational use of marijuana have been legalized in more and more states, Guerilla Glue Co.’s complaint alleges.

“This lawsuit is not a comment on any federal or state policy matters, medical or pharmaceutical issues, or choices in recreation,” the complaint states. “But Guerilla Glue has a famous, valuable brand built through tremendous products and strong consumer confidence, and as a business matter must take appropriate steps to protect its rights.”

GG Strains is no longer an underground concern, said Guerilla Glue Co.’s attorney Thomas F. Hankinson, a partner with the Cincinnati firm Keating Muething & Klekamp PLL.

“It is a business that should be held to the same standards of fair play in branding that apply to all other businesses,” Hankinson told The Cannabist. “GG Strains not only took the name, but intentionally traded on Guerilla Glue’s reputation for high-quality adhesives’ ‘stickiness.'”

Guerilla Glue Co. officials declined to be interviewed for this story, citing the ongoing legal matter and referred questions to attorney Hankinson.

“Guerilla Glue (Co.) just wants to protect its brand and communicate reliably with its customers through that brand,” Hankinson said.

“GG Strains’ side of this case is ironic,” he added. “Their whole business model is making cannabis industry players pay a license fee for the name, which they don’t even own. So when they pitch it as ‘Guerilla Glue versus cannabis,’ that is far from the case.”
“The dominoes have already started to fall”

While the outcome of Guerilla Glue Co. v. GG Strains could influence future trademark cases in and beyond the cannabis industry, the lawsuit isn’t terribly surprising, intellectual property attorneys told The Cannabist.

The case should stand as a stark reminder for other marijuana firms that they’re no longer operating in the shadows, said Amanda R. Conley, a partner at Oakland, Calif.-based Brand & Branch LLP, which provides intellectual-property legal services to the cannabis, technology, gaming and publishing industries.

“If anything, it’s surprising it took so long,” she said.

Mainstream brands already have been eyeing the cannabis industry, said Shabnam Malek, a Brand & Branch partner and president of the National Cannabis Bar Association.

In 2014, The Hershey Co. sued Colorado Springs-based TinctureBelle for breaching design and name patents by selling edibles that resembled Reese’s, Almond Joy and Heath candy bars. Months later, TinctureBelle settled, agreeing to recall and destroy its edibles — with names such as Reefers, Ganja Joy and Hasheath — that looked like Hershey products.

The Girl Scouts of the United States of America have sent out demand letters to dispensaries, requesting they cease selling marijuana with the Girl Scout Cookies name, Conley observed.

Several of Brand & Branch’s cannabis clients have been approached by mainstream companies alleging infringement, Malek said.

“The dominoes have already started to fall,” she said.

The cannabis industry does have unique concerns relative to trademark matters, both attorneys said.

For instance, businesses that previously operated in the shadows don’t have the luxury of establishing years of use for a trade or design mark. Likewise, the companies might not have been able to avail themselves of legal services because of bar association restrictions.

Furthermore, strain names can be considered varietals, and thus are not capable of serving as trademarks, and common-law trademark rights are limited to geography, creating issues when a cannabis company looking to expand out of state via licensing encounters another company of the same name.

“One issue that we still haven’t really tested,” Conley said, “is to what extent a cannabis company can assert trademark rights in federal court.”

The bottom line, she said, is that cannabis companies should be prepared to rebrand if they believe they are violating another firm’s trademarks.
“We’re not selling glue”

Faced with the prospect of conflict with The Guerilla Glue Co., GG Strains did indeed remarket their award-winning marijuana strains this spring, said the company’s interim CEO Catherine M. Franklin. Guerilla Glues #4, #1 and #5 are now marketed as GG#4, GG#1, and GG#5.

However, it’s tricky for GG Strains to ensure those rebranding practices extend everywhere cultivators are growing, dispensaries are selling and consumers are seeking the famous strain, Franklin said. And sometimes, strains advertised and sold as Guerilla Glue #4 aren’t actually grown from GG Strains’ proprietary plant genetics, she added.

Following GG Strains’ rebranding efforts, Guerilla Glue Co. offered to settle the case, Franklin said. That initial settlement offer was a no-go, she said, because it required GG Strains to relinquish its website, gorillaglue4.com, and trademarks.

Said GG Strains company partner Johnson: “If we settle with these guys outside of court, they’re going to go after everybody,” referring to the cultivators and dispensaries that grow and sell the strain, along with the merchandise they produce referencing the strains.

The cannabis company argues that the two brands should coexist — much akin to Delta Airlines and Delta Faucet, or Dove soap and Dove Chocolate.

“We’re not selling glue,” Franklin said, claiming that Guerilla Glue #4 was denied a federal trademark because it was cannabis, not because they were violating trademarks on similarly named products.

“It was a name that kind of stuck,” she said. “We didn’t piggyback off anything. Nobody is buying this thing because they like glue.”
Another fight: Which court should hear case?

Jurisdiction for the case is also a serious concern for GG Strains.

The Guerilla Glue Co. filed the suit in its home state of Ohio. GG Strains, on the other hand, argues that the battle should play out in Nevada, where the company operates.

The lawsuit was filed in Ohio federal district court because Guerilla Glue Co. alleges that “one or more residents in Ohio have purchased clothing directly through defendant’s website, the defendant received payment from Ohio through its website, and the clothing was shipped to Ohio.”

GG Strains officials claim they were “baited” into the Ohio courtroom. They allege that only two purchases from Ohio were made through GG Strains’ website, and that those purchases were made by Guerilla Glue Co.’s chairman and a vice president.

Guerilla Glue Co.’s attorney denied the baiting claim.

“I can’t argue legal matters in the newspaper. There are many reasons that this case is properly in Ohio and facts supporting those reasons. The strain is in Ohio. Their interactive marketing and promotion are reaching Ohio. And yes, they also sold shirts to Ohio,” Hankinson wrote. “There’s no ‘baiting’ here. If anything, they are talking about some purchases that prove their national clothing offerings, including but not limited to Ohio, are real — not a dead link or something that is advertised online but not real when you place an order.”

GG Strains company partner Johnson said that were the case to move forward in Ohio, it would put immense strain on the Las Vegas-based company and adversely affect the health of defendant P******y, who requires dialysis.

“We’re not the youngest,” Johnson said. “(P******y is) 63, I’m 59. For us to go fight a battle in Ohio … it would literally be impossible for us to do it correctly.”
“They’re going to listen to joesey wales”

Settlement talks between Guerilla Glue Co. and GG Strains have been rekindled in recent days.

On Wednesday, attorney Hankinson told The Cannabist that Guerilla Glue planned to reenter settlement talks. He confirmed that he had previous settlement talks with GG Strains’ founders, interim CEO and lawyer, but said he could not comment on the specifics of the discussions, citing confidentiality agreements.

“We can say that GG Strains backed away from prior conversations and shut down the negotiations,” he said. “We’re certainly still open to it.”
Commercial cultivation


GG Strains’ Franklin confirmed that a request to reenter settlement talks was made, but said her firm had some needs of its own.

The cannabis company is seeking a two-year transition period during which it can work with cultivators and dispensaries to rebrand Guerilla Glue #4 to GG#4.

The transition period would also help GG Strains rein in the unauthorized activity, Franklin said.

“It would allow the celebrity status that GG#4 has achieved and maintain that (status) without having more people come in and be able to manipulate her,” she said, adding that she was confident the growers of GG#4 — even those growing unauthorized strains — would work with GG Strains to stay on the right side of the law.

“They’re going to listen to joesey wales before they listen to the Guerilla Glue (Co.),” she said, referring to P******y’s popular pseudonym.

Considering P******y’s state of health and inability to travel, GG Strains officials said they’ve requested that Guerilla Glue Co. executives travel to Las Vegas for any settlement discussions.

“We want to see if we can work together,” Johnson said Wednesday. “Sit down mano to mano, owner to owner, creator to creator and see what happens.”
 

Grizz

Active member
Veteran
don't believe everything there lawyer says guys, we are talking with them again and pretty sure were going to work it out, 1 thing for sure is there will be a name change, the gorilla will be gone, you guys can offer ideas if you want on the new name, also Chunky if you visit our web site there is a defense fund already there, haven't had much support though, out of the millions made on this strain ( 7 mll in Oragon, 6 mill in Wa. and god know how much in CA. ) you think someone would help


the glue
Ghanga glue ?????????????????????????????
 

Chunkypigs

passing the gas
Veteran
...also Chunky if you visit our web site there is a defense fund already there, haven't had much support though, out of the millions made on this strain ( 7 mll in Oragon, 6 mill in Wa. and god know how much in CA. ) you think someone would help

I think you would have to pimp that defense fund pretty hard on social media to see some action driven first to your website and from there to the service you are using and from there to get them to decide to give up their money and creditcard info.

for example when Mickey Martin died everyone in the canna world talked about his go fund me page on facebook and instagram.
he's at 240 donations and 44K a month later.

so the burial should be covered at least.

use this big article about the lawsuit to drive a new help Joesey go fund me and you might see different results.
people trust that website.

if you can get some big names talking about it on fb and ig you might be golden.

did they sue you before or after you trademarked the name Gorilla_Glue4?

I'm wondering if you were personally on their radar before that? they had to know about the strain before but I don't see how they could have traced the strain to you without you doing the trademark.

was the other guy on this
Cannabis Business Minds podcast with you Marrdog? the "lone" dude?
https://cannabisbusiness.libsyn.com/e28-gorilla-glue-corporation-vs-gorilla-glue-4

you were a man of few words my friend, gotta promote the story like that chick you got marketing you.

if it's not a TOU violation throw the link up to your fundraiser here.:thank you:
 

onavelzy

Well-known member
Veteran
don't believe everything there lawyer says guys, we are talking with them again and pretty sure were going to work it out, 1 thing for sure is there will be a name change, the gorilla will be gone, you guys can offer ideas if you want on the new name, also Chunky if you visit our web site there is a defense fund already there, haven't had much support though, out of the millions made on this strain ( 7 mll in Oragon, 6 mill in Wa. and god know how much in CA. ) you think someone would help


the glue
Ghanga glue ?????????????????????????????


Seems like GG#4 works just fine. Did the lawyers make it a demand that it can't be used either? That would be hard to associate with their product in any way. It's how it was referred to a lot of the time well before the lawsuit came public. People in the know, which is just about everybody, would know what the GG refers to and if not, it makes for a good inside story. Everybody loves an inside story
 

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