ECITA News !!

[ckc]

Copied from ECF

ECITA warns electronic cigarette industry of looming patent infringement threat.
We are sending the following alert to our industry colleagues:

8th October 2010

To whom it may concern:

ECITA, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association, has been approached this week by a law firm, Davis-Law Associates in conjunction with IPB Brand Ltd concerning the patent rights for electronic cigarettes. They telephoned our offices and copied us in to a letter they have sent to a UK electronic cigarette retailer.

In the letter, Davis-Law claim that one of their partners, John Law is in partnership with IPB Brand Ltd, and that they have just signed an exclusive distribution deal with SBT Ruyan Technology and Development Co Limited to distribute electronic cigarettes. They claim that Ruyan own the patents for all electronic cigarette products, and that therefore, they are the only ones who should be allowed to sell these products throughout Europe. They have told us that it is their intention to enforce these patents against every ecig vendor and importer throughout the EU and Norway.

At ECITA, we are focussed on the EU Public Consultation, and will be meeting with our colleagues in France and Belgium in the coming weeks to ensure that this situation is addressed correctly, as we did with the MHRA recently. We are also pursuing our contacts at the UN level in the World Health Organisation to ensure that electronic cigarettes are classified and regulated correctly and appropriately around the world. We believe that by uniting to form ECITA, we are better able to demonstrate that we are a force to be reckoned with, and can make considerable political progress in the current climate.

We are dealing with this patents issue on behalf of our members, but wanted to raise it with the wider industry in case anyone receives a letter from these firms in the coming weeks. They are engaging in a very aggressive marketing campaign, and we would urge anyone who is approached by these firms to seek advice from their lawyers, or via ECITA.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about ECITA, our website is at Welcome to ECITA, the Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association.

The redacted letter is linked from our website if anyone wants to read it.

www.ecita.org.uk/

[Hanow]

Thanks for that CK - another stick to bash us with it seems?

[Chrissie]

TBH I'm not surprised. However, I do wonder how far Ruyan will get with this?

No disrespect to the Chinese, but they have a culture of copying/cloning everything & no one has seemed able to stop them so far.

OK I know this looks like they are going for the non Chinese resellers (at the worst time possible) but IMHO, they are going to have their biggest fight on their home territory?

[Scylla]

I don't know what to make of it ???

I mean, with current "regulatory" developments being what they are ???

scylla

[Chrissie]

Scylla, I'm not sure what to make of it either. Seems a tad daft in the current climate?

[ckc]

Its been posted there's a petition up on the ECITA site....but i can't see it.

[Chrissie]

Ckc, I was hoping that either Katherine or Kate would have posted a link to the petition in here, but as they haven't I'll start a new thread about it.