An article in this week’s The Economist looks at the big growth of the e-cigarette market in the UK. It notes Britons spent over £800 million on “vaping products” in 2015, up from £50 million in 2011. It also notes an increase in choice.

As always, it is illustrative to see how this economic growth or new market is reflected in terms of IP. One can expect that the creation of new brands by emerging players and the expansion to a different area by old brands will result in new terms being claimed and conflicts.  

So what can the non-vaping outsider see in terms of whether there has been a growth in brand protection and enforcement?

A very crude but illuminating result is a trade mark registration search on just the industry term “VAPE”. There were over 120 applications filed in 2015 alone for trade mark protection in the UK (UK TM, EU TM or IR designations thereto) for marks containing “VAPE” for e-cigarette related products/services. This must be the [neither filtered or not] “tip” of the iceberg in terms of trade marks in this space most of which will not contain the descriptive term VAPE (in the same way few tobacco brands actually contain SMOKE or TOBACCO).

In terms of conflicts, in 2015 there were at least six published UKIPO decisions in relation to trade mark oppositions relating to e-cigarette related brands. These are at the following links: O-476-15, O-472-15, O-388-15, O-351-15, O-306-15, and O-141-15. Whilst all are case specific, the marks in question, the rights and grounds argued and the new and old players involved show a depth in the market and a range of branding being protect/enforced.  

So even with this quick glance, we see e-cigarette branding is currently flourishing in the UK. This is of course interesting, bearing in mind traditional cigarettes brands at the moment are facing trade mark challenges such as the plain packaging legislation.