London High Court Rejects BAT Challenge to Philip Morris International Heated Tobacco Patent

According to Law360, the High Court in London ruled on April 17 that a patent held by Philip Morris Products SA (PMP) covering heated tobacco technology is valid.

The ruling marks a setback for BAT and its subsidiary Nicoventures, which had sought to invalidate PMP’s patent.

While upholding the validity of the patent, the court also found that BAT’s Glo heated tobacco product did not infringe it, thereby blocking PMP’s infringement counterclaim.

The April 17 ruling is the latest chapter in the ongoing intellectual property dispute between the tobacco giants.

PMP originally sued BAT and Nicoventures, alleging infringement of several of its tobacco-heating technology patents. That prompted BAT and Nicoventures to countersue in an effort to have the patents invalidated.

The proceedings have now been split into several different cases before the High Court.

In the current case, Nicoventures argued that PMP’s technology was obvious in light of a 1998 patent application by Pienemann, which covered a system for delivering an inhalable aerosol.

Although Pienemann, like PMP’s technology, included multiple heating elements, Judge Michael Tappin said that a skilled team would have considered modeling multiple heaters on a single heater.

According to the judgment, Pienemann also did not specifically disclose the film heater included in PMP’s patent, instead describing a graphite-loaded sheath.

On the infringement claim, Tappin said BAT’s Glo products did not infringe because they did not include a method that heats different parts of the heating system at different times.