Patent Battle Escalates as NJOY Seeks Ban on Juul Products

Altria-owned vaping brand NJOY recently filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC), seeking to ban the import and sale of certain JUUL products, including the Juul vaping devices and Juul pods currently sold on the market, on the grounds of patent infringement. NJOY has also filed the same patent infringement lawsuit against Juul in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware.
Specifically, NJOY alleges that Juul infringes two U.S. patents it owns: U.S. Patent No. 11,497,864 and U.S. Patent No. 10,334,881. NJOY acquired these patents from Fuma International.
Notably, the NJOY Ace is currently the only pod-based vaping product to have received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) market authorization through the PMTA pathway. The FDA concluded that the product is “appropriate for the protection of public health.”
In fact, this lawsuit is the latest development in the intellectual property dispute between the two sides. In July this year, Juul Labs also asked the ITC to ban the sale and import of NJOY Ace, claiming that the product infringed multiple Juul patents.