NHL Forces Marijuana Edibles Company to Change Stock Symbol

The National Hockey League may be advocating for a high-flying sport, but it is certainly keen to protect its NHL image. So keen, in fact, that it forced a marijuana edibles company with the initials NHL to change its name on the Canadian stock exchange so as not to be confused with the famed sports league.

The NHL didn’t take kindly to the stock symbol for Canada’s Nutritional High International, Inc., and apparently demanded that the symbol be changed.

Nutritional High International describes itself as being dedicated to “developing, acquiring and designing products and brands in the marijuana-infused edible products and oil extracts sectors for medical and adult recreational use.” It had been trading under the symbol NHL since it became a public company in March.

But it appears that the hockey league contacted the marijuana edibles company’s CEO, David Posner, and asked for a change in the stock symbol. Posner was only too happy to avoid any further legal actions saying:

We’re honored to follow in the footsteps of the Nordiques, who were also asked to change their name upon their move from Canada to Colorado. The Avalanche won the Stanley Cup that year, so we figured why fight a winning formula? While we don’t believe anyone would confuse our respective products, we decided to make the symbol change to avoid possible legal costs, despite being on solid legal ground.

The change in the symbol and the company’s public announcement caused Yahoo! Sports’ Greg Wyshynski to quip, “Glad that’s cleared up. We’d hate to see people invest their money in something that promotes things that society generally frowns upon. You know, like fighting or brain injuries.”

Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com