Cigarettes Packagings, Tobacco Companies Rights

Registering a trademark gives the owner the right to exclude others from using it, but not the guaranteed future right to use it themselves, the federal government argues in its submission on the landmark plain packaging High Court case, lodged last night. In world-first legislation, the Gillard government is requiring that all cigarette packaging be drab green, with graphic health warnings. Cigarette companies, led by British American Tobacco Australia, are challenging the constitutional validity of the legislation, on the grounds that it acquires their intellectual property and trademarks without compensation. The government's case says this claim is not sustainable, because ''what an owner gains by registration of a trademark is … no more than a monopoly right to exclude others from using the mark without the owner's authority''.

Tobacco Companies Reduced The Employers

The sun appears to be setting on the era of high-dollar tobacco manufacturing jobs in Winston-Salem. It shouldn't be shocking news to the community that R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co.'s local workforce is shrinking yet again. The company has announced 19 job cuts since 1983 that have reduced the number of employees from 15,500 to 2,500. However, last week's start to the next round of workforce reductions appears to have struck more of a nerve than did major job cuts in 2003, 2008 and 2009. That's because, unlike previous job-cut announcements, Reynolds American Inc. specifically said pay rates are being evaluated. And they're more likely to fall rather than rise. The increasing presence of contract workers, which Reynolds has used for more than a decade, also has proved unnerving to employees who have contacted the Winston-Salem Journal. They declined to be identified out of fear of losing their jobs and/or severance package.

Tobacco Additives Toxicity Examined

Many people in Birmingham will pledge to quit smoking in the coming new year. They need to. More than a third of Alabamians smoke and that fact leads to higher health care costs for everyone in Alabama as well as a plethora of diseases that affect the smoker like cancer and heart disease. A review of the toxicity protocols used by Philip Morris in the Project MIX that analyzed the 333 plus additives to cigarettes was published by researchers at the Center for Tobacco Control Research and Education at the University of California in San Francisco on December 20, 2011.

Black Market Hits Cigarettes Sales

IRISH smokers purchased 4.3 billion cigarettes from companies in the tobacco industry last year, new figures show. However, the growth of the illicit trade in cigarettes was the primary reason why there were 200 million less cigarettes sold by the industry in Ireland in 2010. That is according to tobacco firm, PJ Carroll & Co, which maintained its 14.47% market share in the industry last year. According to the company’s accounts for 2010, total market volume in the industry declined by 4.7% from 4.5 billion cheapest Lucky Strike cigarette sticks in 2009 to 4.3 billion cigarette sticks last year. The company’s directors’ report states: "This decline was primarily due to the growth of illicit trade." The British-owned firm’s best known brands include Carrolls, Major and Rothmans and is part of the global tobacco giant, British American Tobacco.

The Future of Smoking Ban

Several senators in the Student Government Association spoke out against the possible future tobacco ban on campus Thursday night in the presence of University of Memphis President Shirley Raines and Vice President of Student Affairs Rosie Bingham. At the meeting, junior SGA senator Russell Born put forward a resolution that suggested The University of Memphis utilize designated smoking areas in places of low foot traffic on campus in lieu of the complete ban of tobacco. The resolution passed with an overwhelming majority. One senator in particular, sophomore Nick Mastron, was in favor of the measure. He gave a lengthy speech to the other senators before the vote.