They went after both equipment manufacturers and end users initially and resellers as well. Now they are moving to primarily end users and asking for a 15% royalty to start. If they get a handful of settlements they will go back to manufacturers as well again.
A manufacturer going out of business will not impact their path whatsoever. These patents are weak and their Apix scores are lousy but anyone looking to push back and IPR the patents will spend 300-400k in the process unfortunately.
There was someone making terps for me using this technique who accidentally burned down their lab in 2024. Not sure if they are the same person
This ^^^
One thing to keep in mind, these are not design patents at least the one’s referencing ethanol if I remember correctly. These are process patents and it really doesn’t matter who the manufacturer is/was. Much of this will come down to the temperature range of the solvent when extracting. For the Capna patent it was -30 to -60c in extraction, again don’t quote me I am thinking back 4+ years ago when we were analyzing the patents.
To me it seems like that won’t hold up. That is like patenting the process of washing your clothes
Unfortunately it’s not a question of whether their patent is enforceable or good, it’s a question of who has the money to fund what could be a half million+ dollars to fight these assholes in court and the resolve to do so.
Personally I think this is the kind of thing vigilante justice is perfect for, unfortunately it’s frowned upon to do a GoFundMe to pay for extrajudicial violence…
That… that is a really good point.
Yea I think the real endgame probably isn’t Gene Pool suing every BHO lab one by one. If they can get a favorable ruling or a royalty settlement out of GTI/Cresco, that gives them a lot more leverage to start going down the list of licensed hydrocarbon operators and sending licensing demands.
Sending a letter is cheap for Gene Pool. For a smaller lab, the cost of defending a federal patent case could easily make paying a royalty look like the safer option even if they think the patents are weak.
Obviously that doesn’t mean every closed loop BHO system automatically infringes, but a strong result against one of the big MSOs could turn this into a much broader licensing/royalty campaign.