Phillip Morris going after Online Cigarette Importers

If you are curently buying your cigarettes from European or Russian importers, it may be short lived.  Even the parent company of world famous Marlboro cigarettes wants to put a stop to it:

 Lawsuits Aim to Stop Trademark Lawsuits Aim to Stop Trademark Infringement and Illegal Importation of Cigarettes and Illegal Importation of Cigarettes

Intro:

Philip Morris USA has filed two lawsuits in federal court against Internet site operators engaged in the sale of illegally imported cigarettes bearing Philip Morris USA’s trademarks, including the Marlboro® mark.

“Philip Morris USA will protect our brands and the law-abiding businesses that sell them from unfair competition,” said Charlie Whitaker, vice president, Compliance and Brand Integrity, Philip Morris USA. “We do not want our trademarks misused and do not want our brands associated with illegal activity.”

The lawsuits allege that the websites are selling cigarettes that have been imported in violation of the Imported Cigarette Compliance Act of 2000. In some instances, the defendants have also made false statements about the legality of these sales. The Internet-based cigarette vendors named in this lawsuit fail to comply with applicable tax laws, and the federal Jenkins Act, which requires Internet cigarette retailers to report all sales to the purchaser’s home state taxing authority.

The suits, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York, name as defendants the owners or operators of http://www.paylessmoke.com and http://www.cigmall.net, as well as a number of related websites.

At aadiscountcigarettes, we only sell USA manufactured cigarettes to USA standards.  Our cigarettes are not imported!

Marlboro Cigarettes-More History

Later, during the 50’s, the company decided to dump the targeting of women and began promoting Marlboro as a man’s cigarette. The first icon of this new change in marketing was the ‘Tatooed Man’ depicted on this page. Various images of healthy looking, outdoor types began showing up in ads. The images used in their ads evolved more and more into those depicting particularly macho types. In the beginning, images of naval officers and livestock ranchers made the advertising scene. In 1954, the now well known ‘Marlboro Man’ was introduced, and by 1963 was the sole representative of Marlboro ads. Around 1972, Marlboro cigarettes became the most popular brand, and have remained so, for the most part since then. While the Marlboro brand may not be ranked at the top any longer, it still retains a value in excess of $21 billion. That figure places it above such brands as American Express, Hewlett-Packard, and Gillette. Marlboros naming scheme was in transition in mid-August of 2006, a federal district court ruled that the names ‘Light’, ‘Ultralight’, ‘Natural’, or ‘Mild’ could not be used. The judge said that these names were misleading to smokers in the sense that they conveyed some positive health effect. The ruling further stipulated that names changes must occur at the beginning of 2007. Tentatively, Philip Morris has decided to use a color naming scheme for their products that previously used the banned words in the name of their product. Given that, they have decided that Marlboro Lights would be called Marlboro Golds and that Marlboro Ultralights would be named Marlboro Silvers. We understand that these changes will also affect the Marlboro family of cigarettes sold in our popular online store.