Reynolds Innovations Inc. filed the lawsuit Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of N.C. The case has been referred to a mediator.

Named in the lawsuit are SAS Technologies Inc. of Ozark, Ala., doing business as SaveASmoker.com and Save A Smoker Inc., and co-owner Eric Slaick.

E-cigs are battery-powered devices that heat a liquid nicotine solution in a disposable cartridge and create a vapor that is inhaled. Refill cartridges can be purchased in different amounts and flavors; five-packs typically cost between $9 and $18.

By comparison, a carton of cigarettes can cost between $25 and $50 for most name brands.

Reynolds Innovations said the company marketed its products using images that are “colorable imitations and confusingly similar to” the Camel and Winston trademarks.

When Reynolds filed the lawsuit, SaveASmoker.com listed as flavors “Camell Tobacco” and “Winston” on its website, as well as USA Blend – “comparable to Marlboro” – and Newport, the top-selling menthol brand of Lorillard Inc.

Brian May, a spokesman for Altria, the parent company of Philip Morris, said the company has not filled a similar lawsuit against SAS Technologies and the other companies.

Reynolds said in the lawsuit the use of such images “will continue to result in a likelihood of consumer confusion and irreparable injury to the company.”

Reynolds spokesman Bryan Hatchell said the company declined to comment beyond the lawsuit.

Slaick said Monday that the SAS has pulled all references to Camel and Winston from its website and the shelves of its stores.

The products now on its website are for its MaxxVapor Pro brand. The company lists retail locations in the Southeast for its products, but none in North Carolina.

Slaick said the company sources its e-cigarettes from a Chinese manufacturer who used the Camel and Winston imagery as part of distinguishing the styles and flavors for its product options.

“We just went with what the manufacturer provided and had not heard a complaint from Reynolds,” Slaick said. “Once we learned of the lawsuit, we pulled them off the website within minutes.

“It was never our intention to take on R.J. Reynolds or to trick consumers into thinking there was a connection.”

Reynolds has moved into the e-cigarette category with Vuse, which is being test-marketed in the Triad at select Tarheel Tobacco outlets.

See this article at its original location>

According to a leaked draft published by Tobacco Journal International, the revised EU Tobacco Products Directive contains a recommended ban on the marketing of all smokeless nicotine-containing products, with the one exception of Swedish snus, unless they are authorised as medicinal products on the basis of their quality, safety and efficacy.

The Electronic Cigarette Industry Trade Association (ECITA) said it had been “greatly alarmed” by the reports, and urged the European Commission to urgently confirm or deny the veracity of the leaked documents.

In a letter to the European Commission, ECITA president Katherine Devlin said: “As we understand it, the Commission will now have completed the Impact Assessment for this consultation process. This will no doubt have indicated the significant economic growth of the electronic cigarette industry, and your own Eurobarometer survey clearly demonstrates how significant the positive impact on public health could be, if electronic cigarettes remain widely available to smokers.

“It is crucial that the proper regulatory standards are in place, but this cannot be achieved through medicinal regulation. The costs are too high, and the restrictions on the flexibility and appeal of the product are too great, so all the considerable public health benefit potential would be lost.”

Imperial Tobacco, which recently bought into a third-party electronic cigarette business last month, said it was aware that a working version of the EU Tobacco Products Directive proposals had been leaked. “We are expecting the final, formal proposals to be published by the end of the year and we will be in a better position to comment at that time,” a spokeswoman said.

See this article at its original location>