Protecting the Camel and Winston trademarks from misuse by small electronic-cigarette retailers has kept a Reynolds American Inc. subsidiary quite busy over the past four years.
Reynolds Innovations Inc. has filed 29 lawsuits in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of N.C. since August 2009, with the last being submitted July 1.
In all 21 closed cases, the Reynolds subsidiary won a final judgment and/or permanent injunction to keep the companies from marketing products similar to the Reynolds brands in taste or logo. In many cases, Reynolds received damages. Another four have either reached a settlement or the judgment stage.
The common complaint filed by Reynolds is trademark infringement and unfair and deceptive trade practices.
Those odds have not deterred a Spokane, Wash., businessman, Chance Addison, from challenging what he calls Reynolds’ “misuse of the legal system” in pursuing a lawsuit against his company, Addison E-Cigarette LLC.
Addison wants the Reynolds lawsuit dismissed. A U.S. District Court judge has given Addison until Thursday to retain counsel for his LLC.
Among defendants in the Addison case are addisonecig.com, spokaneecig.com,milehighecig.com, as well as LCP Inc. and Vicious E-Liquid. Reynolds provided documentation in its lawsuit that the defendants have listed “Cam,” “Camel” and “Winston” among the flavors available.
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