E-cigarette maker Juul files complaints against 'copycat products'

LONDON (Reuters) – Juul Labs, the e-cigarette maker at the heart of a U.S. crackdown on youth vaping, has filed patent infringement complaints in the United States and Europe against what it said were copycat rivals.

The complaints follow the seizure this week by U.S. health regulators of more than 1,000 pages of documents from Juul Labs about its sales and marketing practices, as they investigate growing e-cigarette use among young people that threatens to create a new generation of nicotine addicts.

Juul, which controls nearly three quarters of the U.S. e-cigarette market, said on Thursday that it filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission alleging that over 15 entities, most of them based in the United States and China, develop and sell products based on its patented technology.

The company said its UK subsidiary also filed a complaint in Britain against French company J Well France SAS, alleging that its Bo line of e-cigarettes infringed its UK patents.

J Well France did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Silicon Valley-based start-up Juul gained prominence in the United States in just a few years, helped by its high nicotine content and sleek, flash-drive sized device. Its breakneck growth and popularity in high schools across the country has attracted scrutiny from government officials and regulators.

It also sparked a wave of lower-priced rivals.

“The rapid proliferation of products infringing on our intellectual property continues to increase as our market share grows,” Kevin Burns, Juul’s chief executive officer, said in a statement.

“Protecting consumers and preventing underage use are critical priorities, and we will take decisive action where available to restrict illegal copy-cat products that undermine our efforts.”

Juul said many of those rival products appear to be sold with little or no age-verification processes and appear to target young people with flavors such as “bubble bubble” and “sour gummy”.

Big tobacco firms, including Philip Morris (PM.N), British American Tobacco (BATS.L), Imperial Brands (IMB.L) and Altria (MO.N), are all moving deeper into the market for cigarette alternatives as smokers around the world cut back.