From Minneapolis to Down under, the stupidity continues...

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Commentators have long predicted that the eventual result of the WTO case – which has been delayed several times over the years – will be a tipping point in terms of the worldwide adoption of plain packaging regulations. Since Uruguay’s victory in an earlier and very similar case brought before the World Bank’s dispute resolution body by tobacco company Philip Morris, the number of countries implementing or discussing plain packaging regimes has grown significantly.



In fact, speaking to World Trademark Review last October, Enrico Bonadio, senior lecturer of IP law at City University in London, and co-author of The New Intellectual Property of Health Beyond Plain Packaging, suggested that an Australian victory at the WTO could be the end of the road for the tobacco industry’s long-fought legal battle against plain packaging legislation. “Tobacco companies, in my opinion, need to think of alternative strategies outside of litigation,” he said. “The WTO decision would be a turning point. I really don't see how they will effectively spend money to fight legal battles if it goes against them – it would certainly be an ill-informed strategy to continue down that path. I understand that they are afraid to lose their most important tool of communication – packaging – and that their reaction has been so widespread and strong because once they lose that, they will not have any other tool to communicate to their existing and potential customers. But I can't see any way to stop this trend.”