ACKRELL CAPITAL CHAPTER IV_ U.S. Legal Landscape A trade or business that consists of unlawful cannabis trafficking may comprise a separate division of a single taxpayer, as was found by the U.S. Tax Court in its 2007 decision in Californians Helping to Alleviate Medical Problems, Inc. v. Commissioner, in which case Section 280E does not prevent the taxpayer from deducting business expenses attributable to other lawful trades or businesses it conducts. Or, all of a taxpayer's activities may constitute a single trade or business subject to 280E even though the taxpayer conducts some lawful business transactions not involving cannabis, as was found by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in its 2017 decision in Canna Care, Inc. v. Commissioner. Patent Act Title 35 of the U.S. Code (Patent Act) is the federal statute that governs patents in the United States. A patent issued under the Patent Act is the right to exclude others in the United States from mak- ing, using, importing, offering for sale or selling an “invention or discovery” and, if the invention or discovery is a process, products made by that process. U.S. patents are issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), a federal agency established by the Patent Act. A U.S. patent lasts from the date of issuance until 20 years after the date on which the application for the patent was filed with the USPTO. Patent Act remedies available to the holder of an infringed U.S. patent include damages, recovery of lost profits and recovery of legal fees. “Inventions and discoveries” eligible for a patent under the Patent Act generally include any machine, manufacture, composition of matter, process, art or method, or any improvement thereto that is novel, useful and non-obvious. Newly developed plants, plant varieties, seeds, plant parts, plant genes or plant production processes are generally recognized as inventions or discoveries eligible for a U.S. patent if they satisfy certain criteria. The Pat