Patent Filings for the Edible Cannabis Industry Are Getting High — ADVENT

The cannabis edibles market has been on the rise in the United States and Canada for the last five years. According to Forbes, in 2019 it was expected that the market would hit $4.1 billion by 2022, quadrupling its value from $1 billion in 2018. As other countries move towards their medical and recreational legalization, food products and beverages infused with THC will reach a startling $11.5 billion market value worldwide by 2025 (Bourque, 2019). With this in mind, it is not surprising to see an increase in filings for THC and CBD infused products in the USPTO. We have gathered information and analyzed how the boom in the cannabis edibles market is being reflected in patent offices around the world.

This landscape was conducted by searching for the keywords “cannabis”, “THC”, “CBD”, or “marijuana” and “food”, “edible”, “comestible”, “beverage” or “drink” in the title, abstract or claims, for applications filed since January 2015. The search found over 1200 total records in 640 INPADOC families. The results were analyzed and further limited to applications and patents that claimed a products or method for THC/CBD infused edible products that did not only refer to syrups, infusions, pills, or lozenges for medical use.

Figure 1 shows the patent filing trend over the last decade and predictions for the 2020-2022 period. In accordance with the increase in demand over said years, patent filings have increased in the patent offices. As seen on Figure 2, not only the number of filings is rising, the number of companies filing these

*Figure 2 Change in Number of Applications and Number Applicants Over Time*

applications is growing as well. One point of interest of this search was the revelation that even though the number of companies entering the technology field has gone up, the major food and beverage companies in the world are still not showing their mark in the public records. All the assignees identified in the search were individual innovators or startup companies with less than a handful of applications each.

Figures 3-4 show the geographic coverage of where the patent applications have been filed. In the past 10 years, there have been more than 150 filings in the United States, followed by Canada (60+) and the EPO (30+). It is interesting to see how even though Canada has legalized cannabis for medical use since 2001

and was the first G7 nation to legalize it for recreational in 2018 (Ross, 2018), the majority of filings in the field have still originated in the US. Out of the top countries where patent applications were filed, over 80% of the earliest application were originally filed in the US as shown in Figure 5.

Looking at Figure 6, a word cloud of the main keywords and phrases found within the records analyzed in the technology space identifies a trend in the alcoholic beverages infused with cannabis. Examples of

beverages found within the space include craft beers, hard liquors such as vodka, and non-alcoholic beverages such as carbonated drinks and protein shakes.

Some examples of these new beverage filings are US Patent 9,930,906 granted to Swallow Solutions LLC for marijuana-containing “Protein Beverages” and US Patent Application 20200063078 for “Marijuana Infused Craft Beer Recipe and Process” filed in 2018 by John McCreedy.

Some of the disclosures found are even more outside the box when thinking about what can be infused with THC. Take for example, US Patent Application 20180140644 filed by Phytopharma International. This application for “Bee-ingestible Compositions, Methods of Using same for Producing Honey and Honey Produced Thereby” describes a bee food base with THC/CBD and claims the produced honey is effective in delivering the benefits of the cannabis. Another interesting find was Canadian application CA2958473 filed by Richard Ablett for a “Method for Smoke-Infusing Proteinaceous Foods”. In the document Ablett describes using cannabis smoke as the main medium for smoking different meats and cheeses.

Even though cannabis edibles technologies are still on the early stages of innovation and development, it is not hard to imagine the market will continue thriving in the future. These statistics may even fall short of a new reality, when more than a dozen states declared cannabis stores and medical marijuana dispensaries essential businesses in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 has left millions of Americans without a job, and everyone in the planet aware of the risks smoking or vaping could ensue if they contract an illness that attacks their respiratory system. It is no surprise that the edibles industry has seen an influx of new customers since March: consumers get the same health benefits of cannabis to combat pain, stress, anxiety, and depression without the fear of inhaling the products that could be detrimental to their health if they get the virus. (Stine, 2020) With this higher demand for THC infused foods and beverages, the number of patent filings at the USPTO may grow even more than expected, as larger food companies see the opportunity to join an already budding industry, that at least for now, seems recession-proof.

References

Bourque, A. (2019, June 14). Seeking Acceptance From The Greater Community, Cannabis Edibles Aim To Grow Up. Retrieved from Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrebourque/2019/06/14/seeking-acceptance-from-the-greater-community-cannabis-edibles-aim-to-grow-up/#128e649f1d24

Ross, S. (2018, June 6). All eyes on Canada as first G7 nation prepares to make marijuana legal. Retrieved from The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/06/all-eyes-on-canada-as-first-g7-nation-prepares-to-make-marijuana-legal

Stine, A. (2020, July 13). You Know What Else Has Sold Well During the Pandemic? Weed Edibles. Retrieved from The New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/style/weed-edibles-pandemic.html