Troutman Pepper Locke Tobacco Practice

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Earlier this year, Altria Group Inc. (the parent company of cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris USA) announced that it had purchased for $10 million the naming rights for Richmond’s Landmark Theater.  Some industry observers wondered how this was possible, when regulations promulgated by the Food & Drug Administration pursuant to the Tobacco Control Act generally prohibit cigarette and smokeless tobacco manufacturers from sponsoring athletic, musical, artistic, or other social or cultural events. 

We previously reported that in February 2011, Philip Morris filed a federal lawsuit challenging the United States Department of Agriculture’s (“USDA”) calculation of tobacco buyout assessments under the Fair and Equitable Tobacco Reform Act of 2004 (“FETRA”) for fiscal years 2011-2014.  The lawsuit challenged a USDA regulation providing that buyout assessments for large cigars for fiscal years 2011-2014 would be calculated using the federal excise tax rate (“FET”) in effect in fiscal year 2005, rather than the new increased FET rates that took effect under the Children’s Heath Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (“CHIPRA”) in April 2009.

Star Scientific and R. J. Reynolds have settled their long-running litigation over Star’s patents covering a curing process that prevents the formation of some cancer-causing chemicals in tobacco. The settlement leaves in place a federal appeals court decision that Star’s patents are not invalid and so removes a potential cloud over the validity of the patents. Star thus can now seek to enforce the patent against other tobacco manufacturers whom it believes are using its patented curing process.

FDA recently announced a program under which it will undertake voluntary visits of facilities involved in manufacturing and testing tobacco products.  The program is intended to give FDA an opportunity to learn more about the manufacturing practices that are unique to the tobacco industry by observing manufacturing operations, from the…

In an August 27, 2012 letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Representative Henry Waxman (the architect of the Tobacco Control Act giving FDA regulatory authority over tobacco products) again urged FDA to assert jurisdiction over cigars and pipe tobacco.  Representative Waxman complained that the 2009 increase on federal excise taxes for tobacco products resulted in many manufacturers relabeling and/or reconfiguring their products from little cigars to large cigars, and from roll-your-own cigarette tobacco to pipe tobacco.

Troutman Sanders Tobacco practice partner Bryan Haynes was quoted in a recent article in Law360 regarding the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision rejecting FDA’s graphic warning label requirements.  The article can be found here or by request at tobacco@troutmansanders.com.

For questions and/or comments, please contact Bryan Haynes,