BAT arms itself for UK standardized packaging battle

British American Tobacco has appointed a legal team led by Andrew Lidbetter of London-based international law firm Herbert Smith Freehills to fight the UK government’s legislation requiring standardized packaging for cigarettes and roll-your-own tobacco sold in England, according to a City AM story relayed by the TMA.

BAT has enlisted also Nigel Pleming QC and Geoffrey Hobbs QC, who work on intellectual property issues.

Tobacco companies have said that standardized packaging will infringe on their intellectual property rights and one well-placed observer has estimated that UK taxpayers could be hit with a bill for £12 billion if the government loses.

BAT failed when it challenged Australia’s standardized packaging legislation, which came into effect in December 2012.

But in March, the company said that that failure was due to a ‘unique requirement in the Australian constitution that meant it would only win the case if it could prove the Australian government had received a benefit by removing its brands’. ‘That requirement does not exist in the UK,’ BAT said.

Meanwhile, a senior lecturer in law at City University London has said that the tobacco industry’s argument that standardized packaging legislation violates their trademark rights is not convincing.

Writing in The Conversation, Enrico Bonadio said manufacturers would still be able to distinguish their products from those of competitors because they would be allowed to display the brand name on the packs, albeit in a standardized font.