Tag: e-cigarettes

  • Federal Court Reverses ‘Elf’ Trademark Suit

    Federal Court Reverses ‘Elf’ Trademark Suit

    VV Archives

    A ban on a Chinese company selling “Elf Bar” vapes can’t stand because a district court failed to analyze whether the rightsholder’s use of “Elf” on an illegal product negated its trademark rights, the Federal Circuit court stated Wednesday.

    “Elf Bar” seller Shenzhen Weiboli Technology Co. Ltd. argued the “unlawful use doctrine” precluded a preliminary injunction as plaintiff VPR Brands LP failed to clear its “new tobacco product” with the government as required under federal law, according to media reports.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals stated in its opinion that the district court wrongly dismissed the defense without considering the propriety of the doctrine, a proper standard, or Weiboli’s evidence.

    The Federal Circuit ruled that the district judge who ordered the injunction “misread” precedent and relied on a “deficient” legal analysis.

    A U.S. federal judge on Feb. 23 ordered Shenzhen Weiboli Technology to stop marketing its Elfbar e-cigarettes in the U.S., finding that VPR Brands, which makes and sells Elf brand vapes, is likely to succeed on its claims that the Elfbar vapes infringe its trademark, reports Law360.

    According to U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon, VPR has shown there is a likelihood of confusion and the company stands to suffer harm if its Chinese competitor is allowed to keep selling the Elfbar vapes.

    In November, VPR asked for an injunction blocking Shenzhen Weiboli from continuing to use the Elfbar mark, arguing the alleged infringement is costing VPR about $100 million because of the effect on future sales.

    VPR claims Shenzhen Weiboli is not only infringing VPR’s Elf trademark but also its patent for its e-cigarette device.

  • Airbox Fined for Illegal ‘Distance Selling’ in Slovakia

    Airbox Fined for Illegal ‘Distance Selling’ in Slovakia

    Credit: Pavlofox

    Airbox of Slovakia has been fined HUF189 million ($527,283) for illegally selling electronic nicotine delivery devices online in Hungary, reports the Daily News Hungary. The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) has blocked the company’s website.

    The GVH started proceedings against Airbox in February after it found that the company was likely misleading customers on its Hungarian-language website about the legality of its products in Hungary.

    Hungary law prohibits the online marketing and distance selling of flavored tobacco products and electronic smoking devices. The GVH found that Airbox had engaged in unfair commercial practices.

    Earlier, the GVH acted against two Slovak companies for illegally selling Elf Bar and other vaping products in Hungary.

  • New Data Highlights Cessation Potential of Vaping

    New Data Highlights Cessation Potential of Vaping

    Photo: Teo

    New data from Action on Smoking and Health UK (ASH UK) found more than half of ex-smokers in Great Britain who quit in the past five years—amounting to 2.7 million adults—used a vape in their last quit attempt.

    Further, it revealed the main motivations for vaping amongst current smokers included “cutting down on smoking,” “protect others from the risk of second-hand smoke” or “to help them quit.”

    ASH UK also reported that misperceptions around vaping are at an all-time high, with 50 percent of smokers wrongly believing vaping to be as or more harmful when compared with smoking.

    The new data also found that, while current and ever use of vaping amongst young people has decreased between 2023 and 2024, under 18s are still accessing these age-gated products.

    “The latest figures from ASH UK once again highlight the stop smoking credentials of vaping for adults and reinforce the instrumental role these products have and must continue to play in stubbing out the health burden of smoking for good,” said UKVIA Director General John Dunne in a statement.

    “That said, if vaping is to reach its full potential in supporting the smokefree ambition, action must be taken to address growing misperceptions about the less harmful alternative which are no doubt being exacerbated by mainstream media scare stories and some mixed messaging in the public health sphere. This could be achieved through the introduction of national public education campaigns which arm adults with the best, science-backed information to help them quit.

  • RICO-Based Hemp Case Headed for Supreme Court

    RICO-Based Hemp Case Headed for Supreme Court

    Credit: Adobe Stock

    For the first time since the 2018 Farm Bill became law, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide a case about hemp. The lawsuit, Medical Marijuana, Inc., et al. v. Douglas J. Horn, involves the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) and asks whether product manufacturers can be held responsible for a person’s lost earnings and other job benefits under that powerful statute.

    The plaintiff is a commercial truck driver who was fired for failing a random drug test after taking a CBD product that was marketed as THC-free. The plaintiff then filed a RICO claim and state law claims against the companies that marketed the CBD product. He asserted that his lost job earnings and benefits are “business or property” damages that are recoverable under RICO.

    The federal district court dismissed the plaintiff’s RICO claim, finding for the companies that RICO does not provide for personal injury losses. However, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the district court and reinstated the RICO claim. The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case. If the Supreme Court affirms the Second Circuit’s ruling, the plaintiff could recover up to three times his lost earnings, plus attorney’s fees.

    The U.S. Hemp Roundtable has filed a “friend of the court” brief supporting the defendants’ position that Congress did not intend RICO to apply to personal injury losses. As the brief argues, expanding RICO has major implications for the hemp products industry.

    Industry experts have stated that increased costs will be passed on to consumers, potentially making products unavailable to people who need them. Additionally, more liability may cause manufacturers, distributors, or retailers to exit the industry entirely, which will reduce economic opportunities for hemp farmers and businesses.

    The case is expected to be heard during the court’s next session, which begins in October.

  • Iowa City Seeking to Limit Tobacco, Vape Shops

    Iowa City Seeking to Limit Tobacco, Vape Shops

    Credit: Argus

    Iowa City Council is working to change some of the rules regarding the amount of tobacco and vape stores in town.

    In a work session on Tuesday, councilmembers discussed a 55 permit limit in the city (down from 62), a 500 ft. barrier from tobacco shops being near school or university property, and the ban of the sale of kratom, an herbal substance the gives stimulus effects, according to media reports.

    This is in addition to the moratorium on new tobacco permits that’s in place until December.

    Up in Smoke is among the tobacco and vape shops that sell kratom. While the owner is happy there won’t be as much competition in town, he said it is concerning that the city is looking to ban kratom, as the shop is already dealing with the aftermath of the new state law limiting THC in products.

  • Costa Rica Bans Vaping in Public Places

    Costa Rica Bans Vaping in Public Places

    Credit: Adobe Stock

    Costa Rica has banned vaping in public places such restaurants, offices and educational institutions, reports The Tico Times.

    The move follows a dramatic increase in vaping-related disorders. In 2023 alone, the Costa Rican Social Security Fund recorded 14 cases of vaping-related intoxication, including nine minors, with seven requiring hospitalization.

    Vaping has become increasingly popular among young people in recent years. Gabriela Rojas of the Institute on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (IAFA) warned that electronic cigarettes contain harmful chemicals.

    “The tobacco industry has cleverly marketed these products, using technology, attractive colors, and various flavors to target underage individuals,” said Zeanne Gonzalez, another IAFA official.

  • Finnish Youth Drop Smoking, E-Cigarette Use Rising

    Finnish Youth Drop Smoking, E-Cigarette Use Rising

    Image: sezerozger

    Finnish teens are drinking and smoking less but using more e-cigarettes and nicotine pouches, reports the Helsinki Times, citing findings from a European survey

    The European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD) has been monitoring substance use among European students since 1995.

    Conducted every four years, the survey includes 16-year-olds across 23 to 39 European countries.

    The proportion of ninth graders who have never consumed alcohol has increased dramatically from 10 percent in 1995 to 35 percent in 2024.

    Only 6 percent of boys and 4 percent of girls smoked daily in 2024, down from around 20 percent at the beginning of the decade. However, vaping has been rising, with 40 percent of teens having tried e-cigarettes, up from 34 percent in 2019. Daily use is reported by 9 percent of boys and 13 percent of girls.

    The use of snus, a form of smokeless tobacco, has also dropped. In 2024, 26 percent of boys and 13 percent of girls had tried snus, with daily use at 7 percent for boys and 3 percent for girls.

    Teen use of nicotine pouches increased after Finland permitted the sale of modern oral products in 2023. By 2024, 31 percent of boys and 17 percent of girls had tried nicotine pouches, with 11 percent of boys and 3 percent of girls using them daily.

    Cannabis experimentation decreased slightly during the period studied, particularly among boys, with 11 percent of boys and 9 percent of girls having tried it in 2024.

    The full ESPAD report will be published in 2025.

  • States 2.0 Act may Clarify State, Federal Pot Rules

    States 2.0 Act may Clarify State, Federal Pot Rules

    VV Archive Photo

    In light of the widespread nullification of federal marijuana prohibition, the rising public support for legalization, and the potential excise revenues, policymakers are compelled to seriously consider significant reforms to federal marijuana policy. Last December, members of Congress introduced the STATES 2.0 Act, which would remove marijuana from the Controlled Substances Act, federally legalize its sale and use, and allow for interstate commerce.

    A defederalized marijuana prohibition policy would allow states to decide for themselves whether cannabis would be legal within their borders—which they have already been doing for decades—and how that legal cannabis market would be taxed, writes the Tax Foundation.

    What legal markets already exist are burdened by federal prohibition and punitive taxation, which keeps prices substantially higher than illicit markets. Bolstering black markets is a common unintended consequence of prohibition, and marijuana has been no different—even with existing state legalization. Revisions to federal cannabis policies, such as those in the STATES 2.0 Act, would give much-needed reform to a market struggling with a messy policy landscape.

    Regulating Cannabis Markets

    Instead of enforcing marijuana prohibition through the Drug Enforcement Administration, the STATES 2.0 ACT would rely on the Food and Drug Administration to regulate marijuana products permissible in US markets and the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) to track products and collect taxes. Federal and state law enforcement would be able to shift focus and budgets away from petty offenses for marijuana possession toward removing more dangerous substances from illicit markets and preventing violent and property crimes.

    The recent failings of the FDA to properly facilitate a legal vaping market may call into question its ability to do the same for cannabis, and there are more efficient ways to ensure product safety. However, the STATES 2.0 Act specifies that no premarket approval would be required, which would preclude the type of disaster inflicted on the vaping market.

    Allowing legitimate businesses to manufacture and sell cannabis products, as well as allowing banks to do business with a legal cannabis industry, would do much to enable a safe, legal market to undercut the existing black markets dominated by cartels.

    The STATES 2.0 Act would allow interstate commerce in cannabis and cannabis products when traveling between states that have provided for legalized cannabis within their borders, even if passing through states that have chosen to keep marijuana illegal.

    TTB would be responsible for administering a national track-and-trace system. Similar track-and-trace systems are already in place within states that have legalized recreational marijuana, allowing states to track marijuana plants from seed to consumer sale.

    A federal system administered by TTB could incorporate existing state systems into a national database. TTB would also enforce consistent and timely tax collections.

  • ‘Medical Vapes Facing Uphill Battle’ for Approval

    ‘Medical Vapes Facing Uphill Battle’ for Approval

    Photo: DALU11

    Companies developing vape-like devices to ease medical conditions such as migraines and respiratory diseases continue to face skepticism from health authorities and the public, according to a Reuters article.

    The piece details the efforts of Qnovia, MIIST Therapeutics and Greentank, which are exploring the potential of nebulizer technology or heating technology to deliver medications.

    The companies say inhalation can relieve pain faster and with fewer side effects than pills. Federico Buonocore, a professor focused on alternative pulmonary drug delivery at Kingston University in Britain, told Reuters that existing inhaled drug delivery devices are clunky and difficult to operate, and so tend to be used wrongly. A vape-like design could solve such challenges, he was quoted as saying.

    Qnovia plans to submit drug applications in the U.S. soon and the United Kingdom in 2026 for its device as a nicotine replacement therapy, and launch a clinical trial in September.

    Greentank is looking for a pharmaceutical partner to support the development of its heating chip for medicine delivery.

    Efforts by traditional tobacco companies to tap into the pharmaceutical market have been hampered by mistrust and opposition from health officials.

    Philip Morris International last year scrapped a goal to earn over $1 billion in annual revenue by 2025 from its wellness and healthcare unit, which includes a business making asthma inhalers.

    CEO Jacek Olczak said the company had been “too optimistic about how the external environment will accept… Big Tobacco” in industries outside of nicotine. An inhaled aspirin product developed by the unit was also deemed unsuccessful after a clinical trial last year.

    Tobacco-backed companies developing Covid-19 vaccines using plant-based technology also faced stiff opposition from health groups, including the World Health Organization.

    Buonocore said the stigma associated with tobacco and vaping companies would be difficult for the sector to overcome.

  • Taiwan Mulls Ban on 27 Kinds of Flavor Chemicals

    Taiwan Mulls Ban on 27 Kinds of Flavor Chemicals

    Photo: Hertz Flavors

    The Ministry of Health and Welfare wants to ban 27 types of chemicals from being used in tobacco products, vapes and heat-not-burn devices, reports The Taipei Times.

    The list includes vanillin, maltol and heliotropin among other chemical compounds commonly used as additives in flavored tobacco products. Without these substances, manufacturers would be unable to produce popular flavors such as caramel, butter, almond, rose, coconut, raspberry, vanilla and cheese,

    The new proposal would enable the ministry to remove more than half of flavored tobacco products from the market, according  to Lo Su-ying, who heads the Health Promotion Agency’s Tobacco Control Division.

    Under the draft rule, manufacturers and importers of products containing the banned substances would risk fines of between NTD1 million ($30,846) and NTD5 million, while sellers would incur penalties of between NTD10,000 and NTD50,000.

     The government will subject the proposal to a 60-day public consultation.