With everyone and their mother looking to brand their own unique cannabis products and cash in on the country’s legal weed green rush, the once illicit drug has been seeing court cases move from drug crimes to intellectual property disputes, with companies like Gorilla Glue and the Girl Scouts of America fighting to protect their trademarks from the sticky fingers of the cannabis industry.
However, the latest lawsuit over a name games doesn’t concern Lucas Films and Skywalker OG, or Fruity Pebbles and Post Foods. It is instead the result of actress and businesswoman Jessica Alba flexing the supposedly toxin-free muscles of her Honest Co. home goods brand over Honest Herbal, a Colorado-based CBD seller with a name that also boasts significant amounts of honesty.
According to TMZ, court filings suggest that Honest Herbal used the word ‘honest’ in their branding to try and draw a false association with Alba’s Honest and their widely distributed diapers, soaps and detergents.The lawsuit also claims that Honest Co. sent a cease and desist letter to the Colorado CBD company, but was ignored entirely.
This isn’t the first time that Alba and Honest Co. have found themselves in a lawsuit over their products, but it is the first time they’ve been the plaintiffs. In two lawsuits that were settled out of court earlier this year, Honest Co. was held accountable for falsely advertising their goods as free of toxins and harsh chemicals. The company was forced to pay out millions of dollars in settlements and remove certain claims from their packaging.
It almost seems like a brand with those kind of integrity issues should think twice about calling out other businesses’ virtues, but that’s beside the point.
Honest Herbal has not yet commented on the court proceedings, but if Alba and Honest Co. are successful, the company will not only have to pay out damages, but change their name entirely.
