Tag: Juul

  • SwissX Warns Shops of Selling Patent Infringing Products

    SwissX Warns Shops of Selling Patent Infringing Products

    Swissx Labs sent a cease and desist letter to hundreds of companies today demanding they stop selling Juul and other companies that manufacturer patent infringing products within 30 days. The goal is to protect the public from dangerous unapproved uses of its inventor’s IP, according to a press release.

    Credit: Bill Oxford

    The cease and desist letter demands that stores and chains remove vape products made by Juul and others from their shelves or risk being included in the massive lawsuit already underway for patent infringement. SwissX says it is concerned about the integrity of its inventor’s patent, as well as the safety of the public who may be being put in danger by infringing products.

    When the suit is done it is expected the final penalty will top infamous cases on the level of the Enron scandal, the release states. Recipients of the cease and desist letter include 7-11, Speedway, Casey’s, Cumberland Farms, Quick Stop, AMPM, Wawa, ExtraMile and other roadside favorites. Also receiving the letter are major tobacco shop chains such as the 800+ store Smoker Friendly chain. They have 30 days to comply.

    “We don’t want innocent retailers to get swept up in this,” said Rudy Delarenta, senior vice president of sales and marketing for SwissX. “That’s why we’re giving them 30 days notice to pull Juul’s infringing products. But if they refuse, we’ll do what we have to do.”

  • Counterfeit Juul Factory Shut Down by Chinese Authorities

    Counterfeit Juul Factory Shut Down by Chinese Authorities

    Chinese authorities have shut down an illicit enterprise involved in the manufacture and international distribution of counterfeit Juul products in China, Juul Labs announced in a press release. The operation resulted in the seizure of more than 110,000 counterfeit products, closure of the production facility and arrest of criminal actors behind the illicit enterprise.

    Through its global enforcement operations, Juul Labs was able to identify individuals who were offering suspected counterfeit Juul products at wholesale from China. After in-depth surveillance and monitoring, the company was able to locate a clandestine factory manufacturing counterfeit Juul products for international distribution. Juul Labs then shared this information with Chinese law enforcement and supported its efforts to investigate and raid the illicit factory.

    In addition to seizures of counterfeit Juul products, packaging and labeling, officials were able to retain a significant amount of documentation on businesses and individuals with purchase history, which will be used in follow-up investigations and enforcement actions. As a result of the raid, both the factory owner and manager have been arrested and will be subject to criminal prosecution.

    The raided factory had thousands of counterfeit packaging for Juul products at 5.0 percent nicotine by weight in various flavors, with production runs ongoing for counterfeit Juul pods in menthol flavor. Juul Labs suspects the that the products were intended for the U.S. market. In addition, the factory appeared to have been manufacturing disposable vapor products under various brand names.

  • South Carolina School District Not Joining Juul Lawsuit

    South Carolina School District Not Joining Juul Lawsuit

    South Carolina’s fifth-largest school district, Richland 2 school district will not be joining a class-action lawsuit against Juul Labs the board voted Tuesday. In October, Lexington 1, a neighboring school district, became the first school district in S.C. to join the Juul Labs class-action. It was later joined by Greenville School District in December.

    The lawsuit alleges Juul Labs engaged in deceptive marketing practices and marketed its product to minors. Juul Labs has said it has curbed advertising, is less harmful than alternatives and that its customer base is adults.

    Board member Amelia McKie made a motion to join the lawsuit, which saw support from district Superintendent Baron Davis, according to an article in The State.

    “Sometimes you take on an issue and lend your voice so others who don’t have a voice can have the strength to do so,” Davis said. “So we wanted to join the collective group of school districts that say ‘we believe vaping is wrong and we want to do something about it.’”

    The motion to join the suit was a 3-3 vote, meaning it fails. McKie, Cheryl Caution-Parker and Manning voted for joining the suit. Lashonda McFadden, Agostini and Elkins voted against joining the lawsuit. Board member Teresa Holmes was not present at the meeting because she was sick, board chair James Manning said. The board may revisit the issue at a later date.

    Board members Monica Elkins and Lindsay Agostini voted against joining the lawsuit because Richland 2 has no data to back up how many students in the district are using Juuls or vapes, they said.

    “Richland 2 is a data-driven school district,” Elkins said. “I can’t support something in the dark.”

  • SwissX Files Infringement Suit Against Juul Labs

    SwissX Files Infringement Suit Against Juul Labs

    SwissX Labs, a U.S.-based CBD company, has brought a lawsuit claiming that Juul Labs infringed on one of its patents. Filed in the U.S. District Court of Delaware, the suit alleges that Juulpods copy the use of a patented combined e-liquid and vaporization chamber (cartomizer) owned by SwissX.

    Credit: Insurance Journal

    Owned by billionaire Alki David, SwissX states in the suit that Juul Labs has known about U.S. Patent No. 9,351,522 (522 patent) since at least March 2018. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) issued the patent in 2016 to inventor Robert Safari, who assigned it SwissX.

    After its issue on May 31, 2016, the 522 patent was was active until June 1, 2020. On June 2, 2020, “the enforceability of the 522 patent temporarily lapsed, due to an inadvertent failure to pay the maintenance fee,” according to the filing. On Dec. 21, 2020, SwissX filed a petition to reinstate the 522 patent at the USPTO. The Petition was granted, and SwissX paid the outstanding fee.

    “Thus, on December 21, 2020, the [522 patent] was restored to full force and effect … SwissX
    is entitled to damages adequate to compensate it for all acts of infringement that occurred, or which may occur, at any point while the [522 patent] was or is in force,” the suit states.

    Juul Labs has not publicly responded to the lawsuit. A judge recently dismissed an investor lawsuit against Juul Labs. However, the company still faces lawsuits from several states and school districts around the U.S.

  • Activists Raise Awareness of Black-Market Vapor Products

    Activists Raise Awareness of Black-Market Vapor Products

    Photo: Tobacco Reporter archive

    The National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC) and National Intellectual Property Rights Coordination Center (IPRC) in the U.S. have released an innovative toolkit as part of their nationwide campaign to raise awareness on the dangers of black-market vapor products and empower law enforcement and adult community leaders to prevent and enforce against these illicit activities.

    The IPRC and NCPC launched this public-private partnership, with the support of Juul Labs, in October 2019, seeking to raise awareness on the consequences of illicit vapor products, with the objective of delivering tools and resources to communities grappling with this critical issue across the country. Now, the IPRC and NCPC have expanded upon this initiative by providing law enforcement and other key stakeholders with a toolkit that will aid in their efforts to educate and mobilize their communities against this dangerous illicit trade.

    The toolkit is a comprehensive resource that details the various forms of illicit vapor products, such counterfeit, compatible and diverted products, and teaches the community how to spot such products. It also contains broader educational resources, along with strategies on how best to elevate these vital messages through social media, community events and meetings, and in cooperation with local businesses.

    According to Juul, Illicit vapor products present a number of public health, economic and security consequences. Critically, they undermine underage-prevention measures because of their ease of access and may present additional health and safety risks for adult consumers given that they often are produced in unsanitary conditions without manufacturing and quality controls and lack ingredient testing and product characterization. They also may contain harmful chemicals not present in other, authentic products.

    As part of this campaign, and with the support of IPRC, NCPC will leverage its vast, nationwide network to get this toolkit into the hands of law enforcement, trade partners, and other adult community leaders.

    “It is imperative that we continue to partner across stakeholders, including law enforcement, to address the illicit market of vapor products,” Juul wrote in a statement. “Supporting public-private partnerships like the IPRC/NCPC initiative is one way we can actively fight back against illicit trade of vapor products. By empowering stakeholders through awareness and education, we can address the illicit trade of vapor products and foster a more responsible marketplace for the category.”

  • Judge Dismisses Investor Lawsuit Against Juul Labs

    Judge Dismisses Investor Lawsuit Against Juul Labs

    Photo: Okan Caliskan from Pixabay

    A federal judge in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA, has dismissed investors’ lawsuit against tobacco distributor Greenlane Holdings, reports Reuters.

    Investors filed a class action lawsuit, claiming Greenlane should have mentioned a pending ban on e-cigarettes before publicly offering stock in 2019.

    U.S. District Judge Roy Altman dismissed the proposed class action, saying the distributor for Juul Labs had no duty to flag San Francisco’s then-pending ban on e-cigarettes to investors ahead of its initial public offering in 2019, according to Reuters. Altman called the class action “nothing more than a hammer in search of a nail.”

    Altman ruled that the investors did not have a viable claim under the Securities Act of 1933 because Greenlane warned them of the risk of increased tobacco regulation in its registration statement, and the proposed e-cigarette ban was already public.

  • Juul Labs to Exit Irish Market After Just 2 Years

    Juul Labs to Exit Irish Market After Just 2 Years

    Less than two years ago, Juul Labs entered the Irish vaping market with great enthusiasm. The company now plans to withdraw from the country at the end of this year, according to a story in the Irish Independent.

    Credit: Juul Labs

    Juul Labs told workers in September that the vaping giant planned to exit some European and Asia-Pacific markets and cutting more of its remaining 2,200 employees.

    “Although much has been achieved in a short space of time, at a global level the company has had to make some difficult decisions about how best to serve its mission,” the company told suppliers in Ireland in recent weeks, according to the story.

    “As part of this process the company has made the decision to focus its investment on core markets in order to best position itself for the long term, therefore unfortunately have informed us of their intention to exit the Irish market,” it added in a memo seen by the Irish Independent.

    “Juul Ireland will be ceasing operations at the end of this 2020 calendar year,” it said.

    The company launched in Ireland initially selling its products in 160 Circle-K forecourts and 50 Hale Vaping stores.

  • Juul Calls for Common Ground in Harm Reduction

    Juul Calls for Common Ground in Harm Reduction

    Joe Murillo

    For tobacco harm reduction to be successful, it is imperative that alternative products can compete with combustible cigarettes and that adult smokers have clear information on a product’s relative risk compared to smoking, according to Juul Labs Chief Regulatory Officer Joe Murillo.
     
    In his closing remarks at the 2020 Global Tobacco & Nicotine Forum (GTNF), Murillo spoke on how the category can sustainably accelerate the market away from combustible products while at the same time combating underage use and fostering a more responsible marketplace for vapor products that ensures equal access for all adult smokers.
     
    Murillo’s address pinpointed critical areas where the industry and stakeholders can find common ground in the pursuit of progress, including educating society on the benefits of tobacco harm reduction and using risk-proportionate regulation to elevate alternatives that can ultimately end the death and disease caused by smoking combustible cigarettes.
     
    According to Juul Labs, this year’s GTNF provided an invaluable opportunity for a diverse set of stakeholders to come together and speak about using innovation and regulation to create sustainable change in the tobacco and nicotine market.

  • State of Washington Files Suit Against Juul for Teen Marketing

    State of Washington Files Suit Against Juul for Teen Marketing

    Credit: Insurance Journal

    Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a suit against vapor manufacturer Juul Labs last week, alleging the company designed its products to appeal to underage consumers, and was deceptive in the addictiveness of its product.

    Ferguson alleges that by “pushing unfair and deceptive marketing strategies appealing to youth,” Juul’s e-cigarettes fueled a “staggering rise in vaping among teens,” according to a story on komonews.com.

    “Upon the launch of the device, the company flooded social media with colorful ads of young-looking models and pushed fruit and dessert flavored products,” Ferguson wrote in the filing. “At the same time, Juul vehemently denied it marketed to underage users — echoing unlawful strategies used by major cigarette corporations in decades past.”

    Ferguson also claimed Juul mislead consumers by avoiding mentioning that their cigarette pods contained nicotine in their initial marketing, only complying in 2018 when the federal government required disclosure. His office quotes a survey from 2018 indicating 63 percent of Juul users from between 15-24 years old didn’t know their products contained nicotine.

    In addition, the state alleges Juul failed to meet the state’s vapor product licensing requirements meaning every sale of a Juul device from August 2016 through 2018 is considered illegal.

    Ferguson didn’t say what specific damages he was seeking.

  • U.S. Traditional Smoke Sales Continue to Outperform Vapor

    U.S. Traditional Smoke Sales Continue to Outperform Vapor

    Combustible cigarette sales are slumping slightly, but still continuing to perform better than expected while vapor products fall more than 17 percent, according to the latest Nielsen convenience store report.

    Overall sales volume for traditional cigarettes was down 2.1 percent for the four-week period that ended Aug. 22, according to the latest Nielsen. By comparison, the sales volume was down 0.8 percent in a four-week period in May, according to the Winston-Salem Journal.

    Electronic cigarettes sales, by contrast, are down 17.4 percent for the same four-week period ending Aug. 22. Vapor sales have been on a continuous decline for six months since the Food and Drug Administration implemented its latest round of heightened regulations on the products.

    It should be noted that Nielsen does not track brick-and-mortar vape shop sales. Industry experts say that data could have a major impact on market share if it were to be included. 

    The FDA regulations have depressed the demand for closed-pod cartridges that provide the nicotine, with No. 2-selling Vuse of R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co. being the lone exception, according to the news report.

    “The Nielsen data continues to show the decline in cigarette sales moderating to a pace that is only about a quarter of the rate of contraction in the second quarter of last year — before the much-enhanced attacks on vaping,” said David Sweanor, an adjunct law professor at the University of Ottawa and the author of several e-cigarette studies.

    Overall e-cigarette sales-volume growth has declined steadily since Nielsen’s Aug. 10, 2019, report, when it was up 60.2 percent year over year. The latest FDA restrictions on the sector debuted Feb. 6. The FDA raised the legal smoking age from 18 to 21 on Dec. 20.

    Those restrictions foremost required manufacturers of cartridge-based e-cigarettes, such as Juul Labs, R.J. Reynolds Vapor Co., NJoy and Fontem Ventures, to stop making, distributing and selling “unauthorized flavorings” by Feb. 6, or risk enforcement actions.

    The menthol and tobacco flavors still allowed for cartridge e-cigarette flavorings are the same as those that are legal in traditional cigarettes. Juul’s four-week dollar sales have dropped from a 50.2 percent increase in the Aug. 10, 2019, report to a 32.9 percent decline for the latest report. By comparison, Reynolds’ Vuse was up 56.7 percent in the latest report and NJoy down 40.8 percent.

    Juul has a 57.8 percent market share, unchanged from the previous report. Vuse is at 23.6 percent, up from 20.4 percent, while NJoy at 5 percent, down from 11.3 percent, and Fontem Ventures’ blu eCigs at 2.7 percent, down from 3 percent.

    Pricing and availability may be a motivating factor in the slowing of the decline of combustible cigarette sales. The Covid-19 crisis did slow product shipments from China and lower gas prices coupled with restricted travel have given consumers more expendable income, according to reports.

    Interestingly, cigarette sales in Australia are plunging faster than any time in history as smokers turn to  vapor products. There were 410 million fewer smokes sold in the country than two years ago.

    Cigarettes in Australia are more expensive than anywhere else in the world at $32 per pack of 25 sticks.

    Last year, about 2132 million cigarettes were sold in Australia – 193 million fewer than 2018, and following a 217 million drop the previous year.