Tobacco leader Altria Group is reportedly taking major legal action to block imports of vaping products made by former investment JUUL Labs, alleging patent infringement by the e-cigarette firm it once poured billions into. Altria is requesting the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) impose a comprehensive ban on JUUL importing its vaporizer devices, pods, and all affiliated vaping products into the United States.
Altria claims through its subsidiary NJOY that JUUL’s broad range of vaporizers and disposable nicotine pods infringe on patents held by NJOY for its ACE vaping device and nicotine cartridges. NJOY concurrently filed a separate federal lawsuit against JUUL in Delaware court also alleging patent violations.
This severe ITC import ban request marks the newest and most aggressive escalation thus far in the rapidly mounting intellectual property disputes between the vaping rivals. In June, JUUL filed its own legal complaints accusing NJOY’s ACE device and pods of infringing five JUUL patents and similarly sought far-reaching import bans on NJOY’s lineup of vaping products.
In response to Altria’s latest bold allegations of IP infringement, JUUL issued a statement that it “will continue to vigorously pursue and defend our own intellectual property infringement claims” against NJOY and Altria. This portends prolonged legal battles ahead.
The specific patents Altria is now claiming through its NJOY subsidiary originally belonged to two founders of Fuma International, an Ohio-based vaping device company. Fuma ended up assigning the patents to NJOY as part of settling a separate patent infringement lawsuit filed against Altria earlier this year.
“Protecting and asserting our intellectual property rights is absolutely critical to Altria’s corporate strategy moving forward,” said Altria general counsel Murray Garnick regarding the ITC complaint against JUUL. Altria views intellectual property as an indispensable asset pivotal to its ongoing shift beyond traditional tobacco cigarettes into potentially reduced harm products like vaping.
While aggressively asserting its newly acquired patent rights against JUUL, Altria told federal trade authorities that banning all JUUL imports would not materially harm the United States public interest. It cited FDA marketing authorization of NJOY’s ACE products as evidence they are officially approved as “appropriate for the protection of public health.”
However, the FDA has also voiced concerns over JUUL’s vaping products specifically appealing to underage users and potentially harming youth. This exemplifies the complex interplay between heated vaping industry intellectual property disputes and pending federal oversight through potential FDA product regulations.
As tobacco conglomerates closely linked to cigarettes such as Altria and Philip Morris along with independent startups like NJOY and JUUL all jockey for market share and dominance in the rapidly evolving vaping product space, more intellectual property legal battles and pivotal regulatory actions will ultimately shape the future trajectory of the nicotine delivery industry. The tangled landscape of IP claims and looming policy decisions makes predictions challenging amid ever rising stakes and cutthroat competition.
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