GREENSTONE PATENT FOR SALE ON EBAY FOR $7 MILLION

When POG VC listed the Greenstone Patent for sale on eBay, she could not have envisioned that one David Watson, Chairman of the International Hemp Association (IHA), "Dedicated to the advancement of Cannabis through the dissemination of information," based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and author of the tome Hemp Diseases and Pests: Management and Biological Control: An Advanced Treatise as well as the Journal of Industrial Hemp, would embark on an email campaign (border-line ballistic) to match no other in POG VC's experience.

First, let's get the emails out of the way:

Question from DAVID WATSON, June 18th:

My main question is easy if you haven't done this yet how can you get a patent on an unproven process? I am assuming that you have not done all in the patent as I haven't seen or heard of any trans-genic plants or bacteria that produce THC or THCA or any other Cannabinoids and I keep up with the current research and work in the field. I heard maybe 6 years ago about the tobacco roots that produced THC synthase and am good friends with Dr. Yukihiro Shoyama who's work it was, I even attended the conference where the work was first presented. Also in the USA a DEA license for THC etc will be required to do the work, good luck getting one. By the way, THC is just part of the picture, it is the terpenoids modifying the THC that does most of the work, creating Cannabis that is up or down, speedy or slow, clear or cloudy, couchlock or stimulating. You would not like 100% pure THC, boring...

Answer from TEAM GREENSTONE:

Well that's a great setup of a question - drawing a scholar like yourself from the woodwork makes a listing on eBay.com well worth the effort.

Re: Why can you patent an untested process? This is an established method designed to protect small inventors who understand a process, however lack start-up costs available to larger more powerful companies. It is an equalizer that levels a playing field so that large companies do not monopolize all intellectual property. What a patent does is explore the technology (gratsi Dr. Shoyama et al for all your hard work...) and given a set of legal vocabulary lock in a set of possible processes. Re: you would not like 100% THC. It's not about human consumption. The focus of this patent is on the anti-microbial, anti-viral, anti-fungal, and anti-larval activities of THC. The language in the patent is clear. You are strongly encouraged to read the patent in full and understand more completely the process, and again, thank you for your inquiry; you are also strongly encouraged to be the top bidder! Good Luck!

Question from DAVID WATSON, June 19th:

You are correct that I only scanned the patent quickly but I thought I read that the produced THC could be smoked? I assume that is by humans? As for the patent, I have non Cannabis plants that produce THC already, for several years. I have not published the work for reasons that will become clear in the future. But I can say that it will soon be impossible for police to find all the "Cannabis" as several species of plants can be made to make THC. How can you get a patent on a process that has been published? (inserting the THC synthase into tobacco roots?) I thought the work had to be new? Anyway I was wondering if you have done any work in this field or if the patent is just an intellectual exercise?

Answer from TEAM GREENSTONE:

Patent law is a rather complex infrastructure, and it took me a few years to really get a handle on it. As this is my first patent I have had it reviewed by the patent attorneys of Johnson & Johnson (Enzymatic-THC.com) and they'll tell you too - this is a rock solid patent. Kudos on your science - am very much looking forward to learning the fruits of your labors - Good luck & happy bidding!

Question (unbelievably) from DAVID WATSON, June 20th:

How can you get a patent on a process that has been published? (inserting the THC synthase into tobacco roots?) I thought the work had to be new? Have you done GM plant or bacteria lab work? I have my own in-vitro lab. I have several pharmaceutical patents, they are worthless without the funds to defend them, and even more important patents are often issued by the patent office because they don't have a full understanding of the issues and when challenged in court the patent is found to be no good. For numerous reasons, prior art often being the reason. I have many doubts about your provisional patent, time will tell. I guarantee you can find a patent firm that will try and patent anything, will it stand up to a court challenge? That is the question. As for smoking the THC as I asked about, I refer to your statement in the patent. "One might as a means of last resort set fire to the growth medium to convert THCA to THC--which upon inhaling provides neuroprotection (Hampson 1998) (Van der Stelt 2001) (Mechoulam 2001) (USPTO U.S. Pat. No. 6,630,507)." (POG VC calls this 'grasping at straws.')

This is clearly human consumption, or am I wrong? Another question I have is what is the reason you did this? Is it for personal profit or something else? I can suggest to you that no one will buy a THC patent on eBay for $7,000,000.00 but what do I know?

I saw you listed several references from my Journal, the Journal of the International Hemp Association. I started the organization in 1991 and as Chairman oversaw the publication of 26 issues, V0l. 1 issues 1&2 - Vol. 13 isuues 1&2, we have just run out of funding and are considering what to do about the future of the JIH. Our last issue was Dec 2008. Have you seen the issues that are not online, issues 7.1 - 13.2? 14 newer issues that are not online have a lot of info you may have found interesting. We were the only science based Cannabis journal when we started 15 years ago, I am sure we made the world a better place with our motivation being simple: "Dedicated to the advancement of Cannabis, through the dissemination of information". If you sell your patent for $7,000,000.00 please consider donating some of the money to the IHA, then we can publish for a few more years at least. (UNBELIEVABLE!)

Answer from POG VC:

DUDE, you're smokin' way too much...it's clouding your judgment and you're way too up tight; EATING Ma Ren Wan ain't gonna do it! THINK intellectual property. THINK Johnson & Johnson (in-house) patent attorneys. THINK mean, green, killing machine (you know, pestilence ridder). THINK having fun and pursuing happiness. THINK makin' bling (we'll be selling it soon on eBay) and meetin' GREEN BLINGERS! Welcome to AMERICA where POG's hack into the USPTO the old-fashioned way, they patent their ideas. And finally, don't bite the hand that you're asking for cash!

P.S. One thing for sure, 100% THC does sound boring.