RJ Reynolds Denied Retrial for Vaping Patent Infringement Case

RJ Reynolds Vapor Co. has been denied a request to have their September loss reevaluated after being ordered to pay $95 million in damages to Altria Group for violating three vape pod patents with their Vuse Alto electronic cigarettes.

According to reports, Judge N. Carlton Tilley Jr. stated in an opinion released on Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina that "the jury's disagreement with Reynolds' perspective does not mean the trial was unfair.

Tilley refused the motion made by Reynolds, a subsidiary of BAT, to either retry or reduce the compensation awarded to Altria's customer service company by the jury on September 7th.

In its request for a retrial, Reynolds Vaper argues that "Altria improperly injected provocative evidence regarding allegations of patent infringement against Reynolds in other cases, depriving Reynolds of a fair trial. The erroneous evidence ruling also harmed Reynolds' defense. These errors, taken independently and under the cumulative error doctrine, affected the verdict and thus require a complete retrial.

Altria stated that "this was a fair trial. There is no reason for a retrial, and we are pleased that the jury correctly determined that Reynolds Vapor Company infringed on some of our patents.