The motto of the Girl Scouts is to “be prepared” so it probably shouldn’t come as a surprise the organization has taken exception to the name of their main fundraising tool being hijacked for a popular new strain of cannabis.
Sales of Girl Scouts Cookies has been the wholesome non-profit’s main source of revenue for the past 100 years and an estimated 200 million boxes are sold in the U.S. each year.
But the search result Google now turns up first for “Girl Scouts Cookies” is for a new OG Kush and Durban Poison hybrid cross, also known as GSC, with the same name.
Girl Scouts USA are now fighting back and recently sent a cease-and-desist letter to an Oakland dispensary to stop using the name “Girl Scout Cookies” for any products as they have exclusive rights to the name under trademark law.
In what its executive director, Debby Goldsberry, estimated as “within an hour’s time,” Magnolia Oakland removed all GSC products from its shelves. Girl Scout Cookie products that couldn’t be renamed were returned to suppliers, along with a note explaining that products labeled with the name would no longer be accepted at the West Oakland pot shop.
“A lot of people think you can treat it like a parody but it’s not funny – it’s a violation of a trademark,” Goldberry told the Marijuana Times.
The legal threat also raises the larger issue of cannabis strains that rip off intellectual property belonging to other potentially litigious entities.
It isn’t hard to imagine dispensaries selling, say, Death Star or Romulan strains might soon receive be hearing from Star Wars’ or Star Trek’s respective lawyers.