Canopyright’s cannabis genetics licensing marketplace fully launches

The Canopyright cannabis genetics marketplace and associated time capsule service fully launched on April 25th, 2023. Chief Community Officer Lelehnia Dubois summarized via email:

“We are thrilled to announce the launch of Canopyright, a unique platform that uses distributed ledger technology and cultivar licensing contracts to protect cannabis genetics. Our platform allows breeders to create a time capsule of their plant DNA and associated data without physically transferring possession of plant material. Canopyright is user-friendly, community-centric, and affordable, with One-Time and Royalty-Based cultivar licensing contracts tied to the DNA and data in the time capsule.

You can register for free at www.canopyright.com.

Please do not hesitate to reach out directly with any questions.

We invite you to watch our introductory videos and check out our latest press release with some of our early adopters to learn more about how Canopyright can revolutionize the cannabis breeding industry.

https://youtu.be/7UcCuTl6Rac”

The problem with the current cannabis genetics marketplace was summarized by Canopyright founder Jeff Hamilton:

“Unlike in other areas of commercial agriculture, where the value of new cultivars justifies the expense of filing patent applications, new cannabis cultivars typically are not protected in any meaningful way. As a result, cannabis breeders, arguably the industry’s most important creators, are rarely paid fairly and operate in the ‘Wild West’ of intellectual property rights. Years, if not decades, of hard work can be misappropriated at any time. Unfortunately, most professional cannabis breeders have experienced this first-hand.”

The press release went on to describe Canopyright’s solution to the problem:

“Canopyright empowers breeders to take control over their cultivars and how they are marketed. By registering a cultivar in a Canopyright digital “time capsule,” breeders can create “prior art” to protect against third-party patent claims. That time capsule is tied to a physical plant specimen of that cultivar that the breeder keeps frozen at their premises. Once registered on Canopyright’s Hashgraph-secured platform, all data becomes immutable, establishing who was in possession of a particular specimen at a given time. This system also gives buyers a reference sample against which to validate products downstream in the supply chain. Canopyright was designed with the support of legacy and craft farming communities in California’s Emerald Triangle and Southern Oregon over the course of three years. The founding team is rounded out by Chief Operating Officer Kelsey Parker, who brings more than a decade of marketing, fundraising, and media production experience with years dedicated to the cannabis industry, as well as Chief Community Officer Lelehnia DuBois, a second-generation legacy cannabis cultivator who has spent the last 16 years as a medical cultivator, policy advocate, and cannabis industry consultant helping bridge the gap between legacy and industry.”

Over a dozen cannabis breeders and growers have protected their cultivars with Canopyright, including:

• Arcanna Flowers
• Conscious Cultivators
• Emerald City Farms
• Happy Dreams Genetics
• HendRx Farm
• Original Breeders League
• Port Royal
• Proxima Investments
• SEED707LLC,
• Silver Dragon Cannabis
• Southern Humboldt Royal Cannabis Company (SoHum Royal)
• Sticky Fields
• Sunnabis
• Today’s Humboldt County LLC
• Trinity Alps Farms.

Canopyright continues to emphasize that breeders are in control of their privacy settings always:

“Breeders control all privacy settings for their genetics on the Canopyright platform. They can keep certain cultivar information confidential. Likewise, they also can keep hidden from the marketplace their genetics that are not for commercial sale. Canopyright never has access to data that isn’t made available to the marketplace by the breeder, a feature that users demand.”

Kevin Jodrey, owner of Port Royal and a Canopyright user commented:

“Canopyright has no access to the data it holds, which allows me to control who benefits from that data. What I appreciate is that the platform’s security was designed by an attorney who has plant licensing experience. He understands the needs and the protections that a breeder would benefit from.”

More information on Canopyright can be found on their website.