Juul and Altria resolve patent dispute
The U.S. International Trade Commission upheld a judge’s ruling clearing Juul of allegations in an infringement case brought by Altria-owned NJOY over several e-cigarette patents. In January this year, Administrative Law Judge Doris Johnson Hines ruled th
The U.S. International Trade Commission upheld a judge’s ruling clearing Juul of allegations in an infringement case brought by Altria-owned NJOY over several e-cigarette patents. In January, Administrative Law Judge Doris Johnson Hines ruled that Juul’s importation of e-cigarette products did not violate Section 337 of the Tariff Act, while Altria had claimed that Juul’s imported e-cigarette products infringed two patents involving e-cigarette technology.
In a three-page decision, the ITC reviewed the non-infringement finding and modified a citation in the judge’s initial ruling, which had found that NJOY “did not satisfy the economic prong of the domestic industry requirement, which requires complainants to prove substantial investment in products protected by the patent,” Theresa Schliep wrote in Law360.
The ruling said that regarding the economic prong, the ITC “takes no position on these findings” and declined to review the remainder of the decision, including the judge’s conclusion that Juul did not violate Section 337.
According to court documents, the Juul products investigated by the ITC included “nicotine delivery systems” and the associated pods or cartridges, as well as parts that make up the cartridges, such as “atomizers, subassemblies, device subassemblies, [and] chargers.”
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