Vape maker NJOY is requesting that the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) forbid the importation of certain Juul goods, such as the company's flagship JUUL device and pods, in response to rival Juul Labs' patent lawsuit. In addition to a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, the ITC complaint was filed on August 22.
The legal measures are the same as what Juul did with relation to the NJOY Ace pod vape. In June, Juul requested that the trade regulator prohibit the importation of Ace devices and pods by filing an ITC case against NJOY (along with a related federal litigation). The FDA has authorized the NJOY Ace as the sole pod-based vaping device for marketing. On August 1, the ITC declared that it would look into Juul's claims.
The tobacco behemoth Altria Group paid $2.75 billion to acquire NJOY earlier this year. This transaction occurred just after Altria exchanged its 35 percent stake in Juul Labs for the rights to unrelated Juul intellectual property. Juul and Altria had terminated their non-competition agreement in September of last year.
These days, both businesses allege that the other is violating their intellectual property rights. The parent firm of NJOY, Altria, stated in a statement that it obtained the two NJOY patents that it claims Juul has violated as part of a deal with Fuma International, based in Ohio. (Fuma and R.J. Reynolds also reached a settlement after a federal judge determined that Fuma patents were violated by the Reynolds-owned Vuse Solo and Vuse Ciro.)
Manufacturers of vape and tobacco products frequently file patent lawsuits against other companies. After a federal jury determined that rival R.J. Reynolds' Vuse Alto device violated three Altria patents, Altria was granted a $95 million award from Reynolds last September. Retaliation, according to Reynolds, for its complaint against Altria over the IQOS heated tobacco product prompted the case. The ITC compelled Altria to discontinue selling imported IQOS devices in that dispute.
