- Leading vape brands announce progress in global campaign against counterfeit and imitation products
- 50,000 infringing products seized through global enforcement collaboration
- 130,000 counterfeits raided in clone factories
LONDON, April 24, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading global vape brands ELFBAR and LOST MARY present milestones in their campaign against counterfeit and imitation products, highlighting actions against intellectual property (IP) infringement and efforts to protect adult users from substandard and fraudulent products.
"Defending our IP rights goes beyond safeguarding our brands, it is also the industry's duty to shield users from counterfeit and imitation vapes," commented Victor Xiao, Global Vice President of ELFBAR and LOST MARY, ahead of World Intellectual Property Day on April 26.
"These products threaten users' safety, and neglect laws, posing serious risks from untested ingredients and inferior manufacturing standards," added Victor Xiao.
By identifying these counterfeits and imitations in retail channels, enforcing IP rights through legal actions, and severing counterfeit supply chains, both brands have curbed the proliferation of infringing products under a multi-layered, interdisciplinary strategy in multiple global markets.
Worldwide crackdown on counterfeits and imitations
The two brands have elevated global joint effort with enforcement authorities, started in September 2022, to a new level.
During the past months, at least 50,000 pieces of ELFBAR and LOST MARY counterfeits were seized during joint operations, in hundreds of retail stores in the Czech Republic, Germany, Russia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, and the United Arab Emirates, among other markets.
In one of the most successful cross-border operations against infringing products, over 30 retailers in Germany and the Czech Republic were found to distribute counterfeit ELFBAR products along land border, thanks to the brands' close partnership with police forces and customs authorities. Investigators noted these counterfeits were deliberately tailored for the German market with localised packaging.
This case, mirroring the alarming infringing and illicit scale in the sector, represents a fraction of achievements from the ongoing anti-counterfeit and -imitation drive by the brands.
Tackling infringement through legal action
Legal actions, including litigation, arbitration, and removal of infringing online listings, cement the brands' determination in IP defence, to guarantee users choose genuine harm reduction products.
Since 2024, both brands have filed over 30 civil lawsuits against IP infringement in several markets, including mainland China, Germany, and Russia.
In a recent legal ruling on 9 April in Germany, a local court was in favour of ELFBAR. The court ruled that the use of "ELFPRO" by a Munich-based business infringed upon the trade mark of "ELFBAR", the brand behind Germany's best-selling pod system product ELFA PRO. The court also confirmed the ELFPRO trade mark is very likely to cause confusion with that of ELFBAR, and thus upheld the civil action for trade mark infringement.
This case safeguarding the "ELFBAR" trade mark is the latest in a series of blatant violations of IP rights held by ELFBAR and LOST MARY.
In addition, both brands resolved 119 domain name disputes through arbitration, gaining favourable decisions in each of the cases at the Hong Kong International Arbitration Centre and the World Intellectual Property Organization.
Also, the brands have removed nearly 300 infringing webpage links globally. In the US alone, two copycat websites and eight infringing links selling products violating the brands' trade marks were taken down.
ELFBAR has repeatedly stated that any ELFBAR-branded products currently in the US are not manufactured, shipped, supplied, or authorised by the brand. Since all supplies of ELFBAR products to the US were ceased in February 2023, counterfeit and imitation products have rapidly overtaken the market void.
Such unlawful "free rides" have expanded to plague LOST MARY, with an alarming wave of infringing brands abusing its brand equity. The takedown of lookalike websites and infringing web links in the US — where products mimic the two brands' colours, packaging, and flavours — was a direct response to the rising scale of the issue.
Severing the global counterfeit supply network
Since the anti-counterfeiting campaign started in June 2021, ELFBAR and LOST MARY have been staunch advocates for cracking down on infringing products, working jointly with authorities worldwide.
In 2024 alone, the brands offered support to global enforcement in shutting down 15 clone factories, with over 90,000 counterfeit ELFBAR and LOST MARY vapes seized. This synergy between the brands and regulators deepened to disrupt the entire counterfeit supply chain, covering parties from material suppliers and logistics providers to distributors, ensuring that counterfeits could be spotted and intercepted at every stage.
A multi-agency raid in Vietnam in June 2024 came after the brands engaged with law enforcement, when over 160,000 vapes, including tens of thousands of counterfeit LOST MARY products, were seized.
"IP rights matter, but not as much as our adult users' well-being when they select harm reduction products," said Victor Xiao. "While we encourage adult users worldwide to authenticate products before use, and report suspicious products and business practices, ELFBAR and LOST MARY remain committed to working with global authorities to fight against the manufacturing, distribution, and sale of infringing products, particularly counterfeit and imitation vapes."
About ELFBAR
ELFBAR is a pioneer in the global vaping industry. Since its inception in 2018, it has been providing a distinct and diverse vaping experience with innovation at its core.
ELFBAR stays committed to youth access prevention and sustainable growth as a leading brand favoured and used by tens of millions of adult smokers and ex-smokers worldwide as an alternative to smoking.
For more information, please visit elfbar.com.
About LOST MARY
Global vaping innovator LOST MARY is dedicated to discovering the value of vaping, setting the trend, and benchmarking the quality. LOST MARY is now present in over 50 global markets, where tens of millions of adult users prefer its products. As of now, the brand owns over 200 patents worldwide.
For more information, please visit lostmary.com.
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