A Florida federal judge dismissed the lawsuit accusing Maker’s Mark of misleading consumers by stating it’s “handmade.” U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle said, the plaintiffs, who allegedly purchased the bourbon because it was “handmade”, were “unable to articulate a consistent, plausible explanation of what they understood “handmade” to mean in this context.” The Judge noted that the term “handmade”, “obviously cannot be used literally to describe bourbon. One can knit a sweater by hand, but one cannot make bourbon by hand. Or at least, one cannot make bourbon by hand at the volume required for a nationally marketed brand like Maker’s Mark. No reasonable consumer could believe otherwise.” The case is Salters et al v. Beam Suntory Inc. et al, case no 4:14-cv-00659 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida.  

The New York State Department of Health recently posted the application for medical marijuana manufacturers and dispensaries, with two very important deadlines. The first was May 5 at 4:00pm EST deadline to submit any questions to the Department regarding the application. The next and most important deadline is May 29 at 4:00pm EST. That is the deadline by which the Department of Health must to receive any application. If you are planning to apply for one of the up to five licenses being issued there are a number of important considerations and paperwork to get started on right away. I compile a summary for CannaLawBlog here.