Recently, many companies that produce heat-not-burn e-cigarettes have said that Philip Morris International, a business giant in the international tobacco industry, suddenly complained to them about the products sold and promoted on their online stores and social platforms. Heat-not-burn products infringe on their copyright and trademark rights, which is already unfair competition.

The editor of Bajie Intellectual Property looked up relevant reports out of curiosity and found that Philip Morris International has registered keyword trademarks such as HNB and HEATDOESN'TBURN, and the first two trademarks are international trademarks, HEATNOTBURNTECHNOLOGY This trademark is still under application, but it is also strong evidence for Philip Morris International to complain that other related industries infringe the trademark rights in intellectual property rights.

In addition to these, some product promotional pictures similar to those of Philip Morris International were also accused of infringing copyright in intellectual property rights. Philip Morris International also produced such promotional pictures as evidence.

In addition, according to the "Anti-Unfair Competition Law", Philip Morris International accused the infringers of unfair competition, which obviously means that Philip Morris International uses the law and they vigorously pursue the infringers.

At present, many e-cigarette companies that have suffered from complaints from Philip Morris International have expressed their anger, but they are powerless and do not know how to respond. We hope that relevant people and organizations in the industry can contribute their own ideas and jointly solve the pain points of the industry.

Everyone knows that heat-not-burn, electronic cigarettes and smokeless tobacco products are all new tobacco products. Everyone in the tobacco industry agrees to call such products this way, and it is not the specific product name of a certain company. According to this theory, terms related to heat-not-burn should belong to industry vocabulary and general vocabulary and should not be registered as trademarks at will. However, Fillmore International has successfully applied for registration, which is simply unreasonable and incomprehensible.