Patent Threat to Europe E-Cigarette Trade

[rolygate]

ECITA, the UK e-cigarette trade association, informs us that a new holder of the Ruyan import license in Europe, IPB Brand Ltd, intends to shut down all e-cigarette businesses in Europe that do not buy through them.

Their legal representatives, Davis-Law Associates, say that IPB Brand have exclusive distribution rights for e-cigarettes in Europe and their patents will be enforced within the EU and Norway (several European countries such as Norway are not within the EU political grouping).

SBT Ruyan Technology and Development Co Limited are said by Davis-Law to hold exclusive patents for e-cigarettes and their official distributors will enforce this in Europe.

Apparently DL have already started to write to vendors, therefore Suppliers in Europe should probably contact their legal representatives, and/or ECITA via:

katherine.devlin[AT]ecita[DOT]org.uk

 

[BCB]

Wish I knew something about patent law so I'd know whether or not there's anything to this. Sure sounds ominous. There's another thread about this started by freakindahouse. Guess they called it a "parent" rather than a "patent."

 

[BuzzKill]

Well from my knowledge Ruyuan has to have a EU patent active or they have to belong to a country that adheres to the Patent co-op Treaty ( I believe HK does ! ) but it is much more difficult to enforce based on the PCT .

But it happens and they can enforce it to a degree , I am not sure what the process is on there part !
In other words what they want to do is enforce the Ruyuan patent over seas because they cannot enforce it in China !
I would expect this to migrate to the USA eventually .

 

[MoonRose]

Why are they contacting the vendors first? It's sounding more like scare tatics to me, hoping that these individual vendors will contact them to try and work out some sort of monetary deal so that they can continue to market their own e-cigs. I would definitely contact my own legal advise, and definitely would not take the word of this law firm that's sending out these letters. If it doesn't come from the government stating that this company holds the patents and all the legal rights to be the only seller of e-cigs then I wouldn't trust them any farther than I could throw them. Plus as far as I remember, a patent is good only for something that is made exactly the way the patent was applied for, any design changes to the original concept in effect changes the item that was patented and can be patented as a new item design. My uncle went through this on a couple of things that he invented, another company made something basically the same, just changed a couple of things around and patented the new design as their own.

 

[freakindahouse]

Moonrose hits nail on the head, methinks!

 

[Nixit]

I've been importing from China for over 10 years. I will say this from my experience....if one Chinese manufacturer gives exclusive rights to a particular importer from another country then 10 other copycat manufactures will pop up. This is how China has always worked since I've been dealing with them.

 

[tommy2bad]

Yes its a bluff but as we have seen apple have pushed the definition of copyright infringement far enough to be able to do serious damage to competition. I don't know if IPB brand ltd have the cash to enforce this claim but as vendors are cash strapped it might not take much to scare them off.

 

[Nixit]

I've even seen manufacturers in China sell to other company's besides their exclusive importer. They rename the products under a new business name and market it in a different way. I've had exclusive rights on two different products before from China and still saw US importation of the same product. Kind of like Northern Tool and Equipment had exclusives on Jinma tractors but they are labeled a different name. Chinese copyright and trademark laws are not enforced. Even Japan had a very difficult time trying to sue Chinese manufactures making all of the Honda small engines that they STILL make. Those Honda engine clones are part for part a honda engine yet Japan can't stop it. International trademark infringement is really tuff to push. My lawnmower has a Chinese honda copied engine...LOVE it!! lol

 

[throatkick]

See Ande's post below.

 

[Ande]

Am I reading the dates wrong on this thread, or is this a long-dead resurrection?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but all of this went on late 2010, didn't it?

Is there any new information to consider that caused it to be brought back to the top?

Best,
Ande

 

[tommy2bad]

LOL didnt see the dates. Gravediggin is not my usual pastime.
So it never happened then?

 

[rolygate]

Nope.













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