Author: Staff Writer

The international agreement for establishing a Unified Patent Court (UPC), which was signed last week in Brussels, is expected to ensure the uniform applicability of patent law throughout the EU’s signatory countries.

According to a press note issued on behalf of the EU Council, the new court will avoid the occurrence of multiple court cases with regard to the same patent in different member states.

‘This will also prevent contradictory court rulings on the same issues,’ it said. ‘It will also reduce costs of patent litigation.

‘The UPC will be a court common to the contracting member states and thus subject to the same obligations under Union law as any national court.

‘It is an international agreement concluded outside the EU institutional framework…’

All EU member states signed up to the agreement, with the exception of Bulgaria, Poland and Spain. Bulgaria was preparing to sign once internal procedures had been completed, while Poland and Spain could sign at a future date.

Following the signing of the agreement, the ratification process by national parliaments can start. At least 13 member states will have to ratify the agreement for it to enter into force.

‘All the necessary decisions (designation of committees, budget, appointment of judges and president, recruitment of staff, facilities, etc.) should be adopted in a timely manner so as to enable the first registration of a European patent title with unitary effect in spring 2014,’ the press note said.

‘The Central Division of the Court of First Instance will be located in Paris (France) with specialised sections in London (United Kingdom) and Munich (Germany).

‘The UPC is the third element of the “patent package”. The two regulations establishing enhanced co-operation for unitary patent protection and its translation arrangements were adopted on 17 December 2012…

‘The establishment of a unitary patent system valid across the EU will contribute to an

increase in patent activity, especially for small- and medium-sized enterprises. It will also contribute significantly to lowering the costs associated with obtaining a patent in the EU.’

Ireland’s revenue commissioners have rejected as inaccurate a survey claiming that the consumption of illicit cigarettes in the country rose to 28.2 per cent during 2012, up from 24.5 per cent during 2011, according to a story by Marie O’Halloran for the Irish Times.

The commissioners said the survey did not distinguish between illicit products and cigarettes legally imported by people arriving from abroad.

The latest available figures from Revenue and the Tobacco Control Unit of the Department of Health put consumption of illicit cigarettes at 15 per cent of total cigarette sales during 2011, about the same level that applied in 2010.

The survey, conducted by market researchers MS Intelligence for Irish tobacco manufacturers, showed Waterford had the highest level of illegal sales with one-in-three cigarettes being non-Irish duty paid.

The survey was conducted by collecting about 10,000 empty packs from 22 towns and cities between April 15 and May 5 2012, and again between October 26 and November 10.

The figures were weighted to reflect the national population, according to a statement by the Irish Tobacco Manufacturers’ Advisory Committee.

The committee said the ‘shocking reality’ was that one third of tobacco consumed in Ireland during 2012 completely avoided excise and VAT.

The committee claimed the upsurge in the illicit market was a result of budget increases in December 2011.

The Japanese government is expected to offer for sale 333,333,200 of Japan Tobacco Inc’s common stock, according to a press note included on JT’s website earlier today.

This secondary offer comprises 141,666,600 international and 191,666,600 Japanese shares.

However, the final decision on the number of shares to be offered will be made by the shareholder, the Minister of Finance, on the pricing date, which will be between March 11 and 13.

The disposal of the shares was approved as part of the 2012 budget.

Meanwhile, JT’s board of directors today resolved to repurchase up to 118,000,000 of its common stock (6.20 per cent of the total issued shares, excluding treasury shares), or shares worth up to ¥250,000,000,000, through the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s off-auction, own-share repurchase system between February 27 and March 8.

The number of shares in each of the international and Japanese secondary offerings may be reduced in the event that JT decides to go ahead with the repurchase.

NewCo and Tabacos Venus (previously Interfumos) have signed a co-operation agreement for the marketing of all of the Brazilian tobaccos contracted by Tabacos Venus.

Interfumos changed its name to Tabacos Venus when it started negotiating to sell its factory at Venâncio Aires. The name of the factory’s new owner is due to be announced shortly, according to NewCo.

Tabacos Venus is to retain the farmer contracts and tobaccos of Interfumos, and the processing of tobacco will continue at the factory at Venâncio Aires.

Japan Tobacco International said today that it welcomed a proposal by some members of the European Parliament for a special inquiry into tobacco lobbying at the European Commission.

“Open and transparent lobbying activities to inform elected officials and civil servants over policy decision-making clearly serve the public interest,” said Thierry Lebeaux, head of EU affairs at JTI.

In a note posted on its website, the company said it hoped that such an inquiry ‘would be given all ways and means to carry out a full investigation into lobbying practices and solidly question all lobby groups, whether from commercial or not-for-profit organizations’.

In 1996, JTI said, the European Parliament was the first to introduce regulation of lobbyists leading to the adoption of a code of conduct.

“Despite strengthening it over time with various measures, some elected officials are now under the impression that the process is being abused,” said Lebeaux. “We would welcome the opportunity to participate and demonstrate our perfect compliance with the European Transparency Initiative and the European Parliament’s Code of Conduct for lobbyists”, he added.

The European Commission and Parliament had recognized that all interested parties had the right to argue their case and present their point of view to EU institutions, all in the public interest, according to the JTI note. ‘Preventing any party from doing so abuses the rules. Using the non-binding and wildly misapplied guidelines on Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention for Tobacco Control as means of excluding and censoring tobacco companies is intellectually dishonest. As the Commission rightly underlined earlier this month, “Those Guidelines contain no specific compulsory requirements on holding meetings or on the publicity of such meetings”.

‘JTI is one of several interested groups – with relevant expertise – seeking to inform government bodies about the revision of the Tobacco Product Directive.

‘Elected representatives and officials should have unfettered access to the facts, information and opinions that all of these groups can provide, even if only to reject them.’

“Only through clarity and openness can the EU achieve sound public policies and appropriate regulation for any industry,” said Lebeaux.

Indonesia’s National Commission on Tobacco Control (KNPT) has called on the House of Representatives to draft a new bill aimed at protecting consumers from the adverse impacts of tobacco, according to a story in The Jakarta Post.

The commission wants the House to drop plans for the tobacco bill that is already scheduled for inclusion in this year’s legislative program.

Speaking during a meeting with the House Legislative Body on Wednesday, KNPT commissioner, Hakim Sorimuda Pohan, said the country already had a number of regulations on tobacco production and trading, but lacked regulations that could mitigate the impacts of smoking on the country’s more than 60 million smokers.

The House has previously rejected two bills aimed at tackling the negative impacts of tobacco.

Meanwhile, the Indonesian Consumers Foundation believes that the current bill was given the go-ahead as a result of intense lobbying by the Indonesian Tobacco Society Alliance in an attempt to protect the nation’s tobacco industry.

On Wednesday, tobacco farmers staged a protest demanding that the House continue deliberating the bill, arguing that it would protect them from the global anti-smoking campaign.

KT&G is putting one million limited-edition packs of its The One Impact cigarette on the market for a four-week period, according to a story in The Korea Herald.

The outer packaging of The One Impact Maxim Edition was designed in collaboration with Maxim, said to be the world’s best-selling men’s monthly magazine.

The aim is to attract young adult male smokers in their 20s and 30s, who comprise about 70 per cent of The One Impact sales.
This is the first limited-edition version of The One Impact brand, which was launched in 2011 as a low-tar (1.0 mg) product and which is available in five permanently-available versions.

The One Impact Maxim Edition, which also delivers 1 mg of tar, sells for the same price as regular versions of the brand: Won2,500 per pack.

One of the organizations that contributed to New Zealand’s public consultation on standardized packaging for tobacco products is concerned that the decision to go ahead with imposing such a requirement will set a precedent for other products, according to a Yahoo! New Zealand News story.

The New Zealand government has said that it is to push on with plans to bring in such a packaging requirement for tobacco products, though it will not implement it until the resolution of World Trade Organization disputes involving Australia, the only country so far to have introduced such packaging.

The chief executive of the Association of New Zealand Advertisers, Lindsay Mouat, said that if the government could step in to legislate over cigarettes, it could be pushed into legislating in other areas too.

“Some may take this as an opportunity to seek plain packaging in other sectors, such as alcohol, fast food, carbonated beverages and the like,” he said.

Mouat added that plain packaging meant brands lost their identity. “It limits the opportunity for those brands to introduce new products, products that may be considered better for you,” he said.

“In actual fact, it has some unintended consequences of reducing choice for consumers.”

But opposition leader, David Shearer, supports the policy, and does not believe it is vulnerable to the intellectual property arguments being mounted by tobacco companies.

In any case, he said, New Zealand was willing to take on the tobacco companies.

“The most important thing is that our population stays as healthy as they possibly can,” he said.

Chile’s anti-tobacco lobby is looking forward to the imposition of a new law that is due, from March 1, to ban tobacco smoking in enclosed public places such as pubs, restaurants and discos, according to a UPI story quoting The Santiago Times.

Co-ordinator Lezak Shallat, of Chile’s Free Tobacco organization, said smoking cost the country $2.5 billion in health expenses.

Chile had the highest smoking rates in the Americas and, among young people, it had the highest smoking rates in the world, Shallat said.

But at least some business organizations are opposed to the tobacco smoking ban.

President Fernando de la Fuente, of the Chilean Association of Gastronomy, told a news conference the legislation would hit local businesses the hardest.

He said that 40 per cent of venues in the Santiago metropolitan area did not have outdoor terraces and therefore would have to ban smoking completely. Sales were expected to drop as a result, de la Fuente added.

The Japanese government’s sale of a $10 billion stake in Japan Tobacco Inc. is expected to kick off within days after bankers met on Tuesday to discuss details of  the sale, according to a Reuters story quoting ‘sources close to the deal’.

Japan’s Ministry of Finance, which owns just more than 50 per cent of the company, has been planning to sell up to one-third of its holdings to raise funds for rebuilding areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami that struck the country on March 11, 2011.

Japan’s parliament in 2011 passed a set of bills including those providing for tax hikes and government sales of its shares in state-owned companies to help finance the $270 billion it expects to spend rebuilding the northeast coastal areas where the earthquake and tsunami hit.

The conditions for a sell-down have improved in recent months, with Japan’s stock market rising by more than 30 per cent during the past three months and JT’s shares up 36 per cent.

Government officials were quoted by Reuters as saying the timing for the sale had not been decided. However, the estimated proceeds of a sale were incorporated into the budget for the fiscal year to the end of March.

Japanese law requires that the government holds at least one-third of JT’s shares.