Philip Morris Gets ‘Futile’ Patent Suit Over IQOS Dismissed

A federal judge in Atlanta threw out a patent-infringement complaint against Philip Morris over its IQOS heated-tobacco sticks, saying a Florida company didn’t have a chance of winning the case.

• Closely held Healthier Choices Management sued last year, claiming the IQOS system, an alternative to smoking, infringed a patent for an electronic pipe
  • IQOS is a “tobacco stick” wrapped in paper to generate a nicotine-containing aerosol, but doesn’t burn the tobacco, while the Healthier Choices patent is for a device that delivers nicotine through a combustion reaction, according to a July ruling from District Court Judge Timothy Batten
• Batten in ...