Over the coming weeks, as part of a nationwide campaign, Juul Labs will be filing trademark infringement lawsuits against approximately 20 retailers that the company has identified as some of the worst offenders in the country. The defendants targeted in these cases are retail outlets that refused to stop selling counterfeit JUUL products even after Juul Labs verified their illicit activities, demanded they stop, and served them with cease and desist notices.

• Counterfeit JUUL products are designed and marketed to mimic authentic JUUL products and largely are imported from China-based suppliers. In conjunction with law enforcement, Juul Labs has identified and shut down numerous illicit manufacturing operations in China, each of which were capable of producing hundreds of thousands of counterfeited products a month. Unfortunately, others remain and are still active.
• Authentic JUULpods for the U.S. market are filled and packaged in the U.S. using Juul Labs’ proprietary e-liquids under its strict manufacturing standards and quality controls. Counterfeit JUUL products are not manufactured in accordance with these stringent requirements but are instead manufactured outside of our control, using unknown ingredients and materials and under unknown manufacturing and processing controls without product testing and characterization.
• Sales of counterfeit products also undermine underage-prevention measures through ease of access. For example, counterfeit products are often sold through nontraditional retail channels, such as social sourcing and online with inadequate age-verification requirements. In addition, Juul Labs-run investigations through its Mystery Shop program have shown that where retailers are willing to carry and sell illicit vaping products, they are often willing to ignore other legal requirements. Indeed, some of the retailers named in the complaints Juul Labs will file over the next 60 days were found to not only be selling counterfeit JUUL products but also failed to complete proper age verification and comply with our internal product-quantity limits.

It is our hope that these actions will help remove counterfeit JUUL products from the market and also yield additional information on upstream suppliers that will help Juul Labs and others further disrupt the illicit black market for vapor products.

Our customer base is the world’s billion adult smokers. As we strive to reset the category in the U.S. and earn a license to operate in society, we will continue to work cooperatively with stakeholders to combat underage use and transition adult smokers from combustible cigarettes.

A key part of our youth prevention plan includes aggressively enforcing our intellectual property rights against counterfeiters and other infringers, operators who flood the market with unauthorized, and unregulated products, about which often little is known. These products tend to feature flavors and marketing that clearly target youth users and are often sold without any, let alone proper, age verification.

In our continued efforts to combat these violations, JUUL Labs filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey against 4 entities, their owners, and other individuals for trademark infringement, cybersquatting, unfair competition, unjust enrichment, and fraudulent misrepresentation, among other charges. The defendants employed a marketing strategy seemingly designed to create a false association with JUUL Labs, while simultaneously targeting a youth demographic.

The named entities are Juul Monster, K & R Products, Status Distribution, and Status Vapes, and their owners are Kristen Vanorski, Ryan Doka, Craig Doka, James Doka, and Jaclyn Quinto.  They are alleged to have sold/resold JUUL products, third-party vapor products, and counterfeit JUUL products under the misleading and infringing business and trade names “JUUL MONSTER” and “JUUL MEGA STORE,” and marketed using the cartoonish Juul Monster logo, which is clearly depicted using a JUUL device.

The defendants, who attempted to register their cartoon Juul Monster logo with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, appear to irresponsibly target children with their marketing strategy, using JUUL Labs’ own branding. They promote JUUL-compatible brands in kid-appealing flavors like “green apple hard candy,” which are pushed through affiliated social media accounts such as Juul Monster and HotPodz, undermining JUUL Labs’ ongoing youth prevention efforts.

This recent filing is another step to protect public health and JUUL Labs’ brand and innovations. We will continue to take forceful actions and do what we can to stop these counterfeit and infringing products from flooding the markets. We will work with regulators, law enforcement and other key stakeholders to protect public health and combat youth access.