Schweitzer-Mauduit International, Inc. announced that it filed a patent infringement lawsuit recently in the United States District Court against Astra Tobacco Corporation, Delfort Group and German groups Julius Glatz, GmbH, and LIPtec, GmbH, over alleged infringement of their US patent number 6,725,867 for low ignition propensity cigarette paper.

Astra Tobacco is the sales and marketing company for Delfort group in the US.

Glatz GmbH has also recently launched a LIP paper after considerable speculation they were developing a LIP paper.

SWM apparently intends to defend its LIP intellectual property in the courts if necessary. It will be interesting to see if their patents are robust enough to withstand close scrutiny.

comments welcome………………..

Hauni Maschinenbau AG acquired Sodim SAS from Imperial Tobacco Group Plc on February 2 2010.

The  sale by Imperial is no great surprise as Sodim clearly did not represent core business activities and was probably slated for sale soon after Imperial acquired Altadis.

In a press release Sodim reiterated its personnel, biz relationships, and location remain unaffected. 

Perhaps of greater interest are the potential repercussions of this acquisition.

Premises are  likely to be consolidated in the longer term – perhaps merging with Hauni’s affiliate Decoulfe.

Sodim has enjoyed a recent virtual monopoly within Imperial and this may change.

Huni on the other hand has previously worked with market leader Cerulean in developing on-line measurement systems to complement machinery.

What’s your view?

This new relationship provides Hauni with an important additional portfolio of products in the areas of metrology and measurement systems.

I had the privilege of starting the FDA registration process recently for a tobacco client and thought it worth sharing my experiences.

All the information on what needs to be done including a check list is available on the FDA website. This is helpful; at least there’s a template to work from.

What’s missing is exactly how to do it. There’s a lot of detail and you must pay particular attention to the sequence.

The tricky part is obtaining the personal digital certificate. If you don’t have (much / any) experience with digital certificates and signatures this part will turn you for a loop. Nothing (with FDA) can be done without it!

On the FDA website there is a list of digital signature providers and links to their websites. One is free – all the others want money and in some cases quite a bit.

Assuming the correspondence for letters of non-repudiation has also been sent – and is correct, you wil receive a reply from FDA. You can then start setting up your (WebTrader) test account. Essentially you are verifying the communication link – to FDA – and exchanging parts of the digital certificates with FDA which allows your data to be identified as uniquely yours and FDA to receive encrypted secure data.

So far so good.

After this you receive further notifications from FDA and then make a second test submission. If this all goes well…………….you can set up a Production Account.

Remember up until now no data has been exchanged. More on this later.

If you haven’t started the process I encourage you to get going – the registration deadline is February 28 and there are other deadlines looming in April and June.

Enjoy.

Liggett group’s general counsel sent a letter to FDA protesting the nomination process representing small tobacco businesses.

FDA has previously made clear that only small manufacturers could vote / nominate a representative to their category. Liggett contends this was not intended in the legislation and they should have some say under a broader definition of a small manufacturer.

Any view and opinions?

Well if your year was anything like mine – 2009 raced by and it’s now Christmas again and the East coast is blanketed in snow!

We hope you had a good 2009 but wish you a better 2010. Have a great Christmas too and thanks for all your contributions, comments and visits. These are all appreciated.

For the Tobacco Industry a lot happened in 2009. We are still living with the changed lanscape but be sure it’s different now.

In the US tax increases (Federal and many States) were instrumental in making our business smaller / faster. Ironically the State tax increases were mostly driven by a desperate need to plug budget short falls. High taxes in Canada continued to encourage the development of a thriving contraband business from native reservations adjacent to the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Much the same applies to the cigarette business in Paraguay into Brazil.

After years of speculation this administration passed FDA regulation of Tobacco. This fundamentally changes the US tobacco landscape permanently and irrevocably.

Our industy is smaller but continues to adjust to meet business challenges.

Finally we should not forget our customers. Thank-you.

Consider this: As smokers – there are around 60 million of you in the US – enough to make a loud noise if you choose to about smoking restrictions and many other issues affecting the daily lives of smokers.

We offer this forum to voice your concerns.

Merry Christmas

In an attempt to prevent fires from unattended lit cigarettes various governments are requiring FSC cigarettes. 49 of the 50 US States require it or have already passed legislation that will. Lone stand-out is Wyoming (population 10)  but this is only a matter of time. Canada required it several years go, Australia and South Africa will soon and the EU.

Look through this blog and you will see many complaints about the taste of FSC cigarettes. It would be interesting to know what Brands?

Many consumers dislike the taste and believe something noxious has been added to deter smokers- not true.

What has changed is the burn characteristics of the cigarette and when you do this the taste changes.

As FSC regulations come on board many Manufacturers are 100% migrating to FSC product to avoid shipping the wrong product into a FSC State and avoid the heavy fines associated with this error.

So what’s your experience? Tell us what Brands you’re smoking and if they taste good or bad??

Feedback welcome.

Even before it opened TabInfo Asia 2009, held in Bangkok Thailand November 11-13, had problems which only became worse.

Originally arranged as a private Tobacco Industry event, the Thai government declared it public shortly before opening. This meant all Thai tobacco restrictions on advertising and tobacco product display (which are stringent) were effective – something the organizers (Tobacco Reporter and Think Event Marketing) thought had been covered.

Caught wrong-footed the organizers rushed to issue statements to exhibitors advising the new restrictions and the penalties for violators. With this back-drop it became unviable to show any tobacco products or advertising without risking fines and / or imprisonment - something not too many exhibitors were willing to risk.

Under goverment pressure the Thai Tobacco Monopoly converted their mega show-case anchor stand into a Welcome to Thailand Center.

Demonstrators gathered outside the site to protest on the first day – kept at bay by last-minute security personnel.

Total attendance was less than 1,000 visitors over three days leaving plenty of time to renew acquaintances with tobacco colleagues and fellow exhibitors from around the world. Opportunities to develop contacts and conduct business evaporated -leaving dismay and cost.

Post exhibition; the original decision to hold a show in Thailand looked flawed. The exhibition hall at the Impact Centre (sic)  was a considerable distance from the centre of Bangkok requiring a commute of 40 minutes each way – assuming traffic cooperated (which it didn’t.) Predictably exhibitors were upset – raising the broader issue of the number of Tobacco exhibitions in close proximity between Tobacco Reporter (TR), World Tobacco (WT) and Tobacco Intenational (TI.)

To illustrate; in 2010 Tobacco International (TI) holds its annual show in Krakow Poland April 15-17. WT plans its show in Hyderabad India April 21/21, TR a networking forum (gtnf) in Bangalore in October – followed by WT Asia in Jakarta October 27-29. 2011 sees a WT show in Munich November 8-10 then TR Prague November 15-18. WT plans another show in Jakarta in November 2012.

The industry can’t keep up. The Tobacco Industry cost structure has changed and the show organizers show no sign of acknowledging this fundamental shift. The signs are all around. Big tobacco withdrew its participation about 10 years ago, followed by the larger machinery suppliers. Shows have shrunk and so has attendance.

The show organizers need to reconsider their events as there is mounting evidence it is unsustainable.

Feel free to add your comments and suggestions…………………………

In a new twist the FDA appears to have included vendors / materials of any component / raw materials to the cigarette or its packaging.

Previously it was thought only cigarette producers / importers had to provide an ingredients list to FDA by December 22.

Suppliers of papers, filters, packaging, aluminum foil, poly-wraps and tear tapes will all have to comply.

FDA is curently pilot testing an electronic web-site version to facilitate this registration.

More to follow………………