Does anyone know updated news from USITC about Smoore (CCELL) complaint?

[CBDFANS]

In October 2021, Shenzhen Smore(Holder of CCELL Brand) filed a “337 investigation” application with the United States International Trade Commission (ITC), accusing 38 enterprises and individuals in the United States, Canada and other places of infringing their patents and trademark rights, and requesting ITC to issue exclusion orders and prohibition orders.

Smoore_Complaint_in_1286.pdf (704.8 KB)

In November 2021, The USITC identified the following as the respondents this investigation:

BBTank USA, LLC, of Lambertville, MI;
Glo Extracts of Los Angeles, CA;
BulkCarts.com of Canton, MI;
Greenwave Naturals LLC of Austin, TX;
BoldCarts.com of Tempe, AZ;
Bold Crafts, Inc., of Irvine, CA;
Blinc Group Holdings, LLC, of New York, NY;
Jonathan Ray Carfield d/b/a AlderEgo Wholesale, AlderEgo Holdings, Inc, and AlderEgo Group Limited a/k/a AVID Holdings Limited of Shenzhen, Guangdong, China;
Hanna Carfield of Tacoma, WA;
Next Level Ventures, LLC, of Seattle, WA;
Advanced Vapor Devices, LLC, of Los Angeles, CA;
avd710.com of Seattle, WA;
AlderEgo Group Limited (“AEG”) of Hong Kong;
A&A Global Imports, Inc., d/b/a Marijuana Packaging of Vernon, CA;
Bulk Natural, LLC d/b/a True Terpenes of Portland, OR;
Brand King, LLC, of Sacramento, CA;
ZTCSMOKE USA Inc. of Niceville, FL;
headcandysmokeshop.com of Richmond, BC, Canada;
Head Candy Enterprise Ltd. of Vancouver, BC, Canada;
Green Tank Technologies Corp. of Toronto, ON, Canada;
Cannary Packaging Inc. of Kelowna, BC, Canada;
Cannary LA of Signal Hill, CA;
dcalchemy.com of Phoenix, AZ;
DC Alchemy, LLC, of Phoenix, AZ;
Cartridgesforsale.com of Ypsilanti, MI;
HW Supply, LLC, of Ypsilanti, MI;
International Vapor Group, LLC, of Miami Lakes, FL;
Obsidian Supply, Inc., of Irvine, CA;
Ygreeninc.com of Walnut, CA;
Ygreen Inc. of Walnut, CA;
Atmos Nation LLC of Davie, FL;
shopbvv.com of Naperville, IL;
Best Value Vacs, LLC, of Naperville, IL;
Royalsupplywholesale.com of San Francisco, CA;
Customcanabisbranding.com of San Francisco, CA;
CLK Global, Inc., of San Francisco, CA;
iKrusher.com of Arcadia, CA; and
The Calico Group Inc. of Austin, TX.

USITC Institutes Section 337 Investigation of Certain Oil-Vaping Cartridges,...

As far as I know, the Court Hearing will be in August 2022， the Preliminary Ruling will be In November 2022. Looking forward to the final judgment coming, to bring the vaping industry reshuffle.

[Dr.stanky]

A Chinese owned company bitching about copyright/ trademark violations. That’s rich

[AVID]

We know quite a lot about this as our company was the original creator and founder of Advanced Vapor Devices (AVD) and legally owns the Trademark.

Due to the tremendous success of AVD taking significant marketshare away from CCELL, they were the primary target, along with our founders (Jonathan and Hanna Carfield), who were the ONLY individuals listed personally.

Naturally, we spent a significant amount of money talking with our legal team, along with several direct talks with Smoore’s leadership as well.

Our findings were:

1. Naturally, anyone selling fake CCELL carts and using the CCELL trademark will lose. Pretty clear and blatant fraud. This involves about 30% of the listed companies - mostly ALL Chinese.

2. Utility Infringement for the CCELL M6T Resin Press-Fit Tank is quite strong and CCELL has a strong argument for factories and sellers that are selling a similar-looking device. Companies that sold or continue to sell this design will likely lose.

3. Utility Infringement for the CCELL TH2 Glass Twist-On Cartridge is not as clear. CCELL claims that their patent forbids anyone from using a cotton to block oil going through the aperture holes. However, the wording of the patent does not clearly depict the TH2 cartridge as we know it. The existence of an absorbent material blocking the oil intake hole seems to be the IP that most Chinese factories are worried about and have been rushing to develop a “cottonless” cartridge. Smoore has a 75-80% chance of winning this argument.

4. Ceramic Atomizer has one main argument about infringement: is the heating element internally tangent to the exterior surface of the tubular ceramic heating element. This argument is difficult for either party to predict as both Greenlane/CCELL feel very strong about their argument, but the legal defense team that is representing about half of the listed companies feel strongly the claim will lose.

5. Unfair Business Practices and Tax Fraud. This is the area that we find MOST concerning as the majority of importers of vape products in the USA grossly underreport their declared values when importing into the USA. On average, importers declare about 20% or less than the actual value due to the high import tax rate on vape products of nearly 27%. This was a major focus and target during the depositions and rounds of information gathering. Didn’t the US government get the famous Al Capone on tax evasion? This is where importers should be the most scared as some companies could be facing millions and millions in back taxes and penalties.

Regarding AVD and why we have changed our brand to AVEO:

1. Our former “exclusive distributor” Next Level Ventures (Alex Kwon, a partner at Leafwerx in Washington and Michael Brosgardt) was the importer of record for nearly all of AVD’s branded products and Smoore has evidence of roughly 30M units of cartridges with declared values that are far below the invoice amounts they paid us (the manufacturer) when importing. They are likely facing an enormous tax debt and penalty that will financially ruin them. Of course, the guys at Next Level won’t admit this, as nobody on earth would want to do business with them and start seeking other alternatives.

For this reason, we have stopped working exclusively with Michael Brosgardt and Alex Kwon since September of 2021.

2. Michael Brosgardt & Alex Kwon also continue to sell products under our AVD trademark without our permission because, well, if they stopped, they would also be out of business. They need to make money to pay off the tax bill that will soon be chasing them down as they continue to sell copies of the TH2 and M6T without the permission of the owners of AVD. As part of the settlement with Smoore, Jonathan and Hanna Carfield agreed to not use or import any products under their AVD trademark until after the ITC case and existing legal actions have been finalized.

This meant that our company had to rebrand simply to not take on added risk or liability due to Next Level continuing to sell products as AVD.

3. After extensive talks with Smoore, the Carfield’s have been officially removed from the settlement agreement and allowed to continue operating their business, after agreeing to not sell similar products of the TH2 or M6T. You will notice on our website that we ONLY offer the EazyPress design that was created by us in late 2018.

Regarding other companies listed:

About 50% of them have either gone out of business or settled with Smoore to either stop selling or resell CCELL products. We have been told that many companies ran out of money during several rounds of depositions that has been costly due to the amount of legal work required.

The remaining parties that have banded together and sharing legal costs were highly confident in the beginning that they could win this action by Smoore. After recent talks, they aren’t nearly as confident, but still believe the argument around the ceramic heating core isn’t a slam dunk for Smoore.

Regardless, the scramble for alternative heating cores is definitely happening at the factory level.

Our group has been contracted to work with a major factory on helping them develop a patented core that removes the need for an absorbent material that is nearing completion and have been in testing phases for the past month.

The REAL AVD is now AVEO

AVEO | Cannabis Vape Cartridge and Atomizer

[GrzA]

Diggin the plastic tip boys!

[CBDFANS]

Thank you for telling people the truth. I extend my sympathies to the businesses that are affected, I know that AVD Brand doing great and achieved great success. Your marketing is very impressive, hemp plastic materials are very friendly to the environment. Keep going with your new AVEO Brand， to bring more creative products to consumers.

[AVDMarcus]

[Naterade777]

Uh, that’s no stereotype. It’s more prevalent now than ever. Just take a look at DHGate and Aliexpress. Amazon has become the same bullshit as well. You’re blind as a fucking bat or you’re a deceiver with hidden agendas. Go the fuck away with your lies!