HBI Innovations Announces Court of Appeals Victory, Ending 9-Year Legal Battle

New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - April 28, 2025) - HBI Innovations (HBI), the independent, provider of high-quality rolling papers and smoking innovations, issued a statement about today's ruling in favor of HBI in its nine-year court battle against Republic Tobacco. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit rejected Republic Tobacco's attempt to overturn the June 2021 jury verdict finding that Republic/OCB illegally copied the trade-dress packaging design HBI uses for its RAW^® Organic Hemp rolling paper products and infringed the copyright-protected design of RAW^® advertising.

HBI Innovations announces Court of Appeals Victory, Ending 9-year Legal Battle

In the April 25, 2025 ruling, the Court affirmed the jury's verdict that Republic willfully copied RAW's trade dress and ad design for its OCB^® Organic Hemp products.

By rejecting Republic's attempt to escape liability for using HBI's RAW^® trade-dress packaging design for Republic's .99 OCB^® Organic Hemp product packaging by simply using a different brand name, HBI has proven that authenticity and innovation can't be stolen with a letter-swap - even by Mega Tobacco.

"As we've said in the past, our industry benefits when people in this space are truly familiar with the products and consumers' preferences," said Josh Kesselman, founder and president of HBI, in response to the ruling. "We hope this ruling helps Republic accept that its litigation assault was a waste of time and money. True innovation benefits everyone. We can all do better by helping those industry pioneers who are struggling to compete in the legal marketplace. WE ALL GET HIGHER TOGETHER!"

HBI Innovations announces Court of Appeals Victory, Ending 9-year Legal Battle

"Over the last 20+ years Don Levin and Republic Tobacco have tried to eliminate RAW^® as competition, because we completely disrupted their business model of older, thicker, white papers," Kesselman continues. "But instead of competing in the marketplace with innovation and quality, Levin and Republic seem to be trying to litigate their way to it, by exploiting the judicial system to control the marketplace and eliminate their competition. They've sued me three times so far and sued the Spanish factory and the previous factory before that! It's wild!"

Kesselman noted that all of the net award proceeds - totaling in the high six figures - were donated through the RAW Giving initiative to various charitable groups from social justice organizations to animal rescues with a goal of helping uplift people that were negatively impacted by cannabis laws.

HBI Innovations announces Court of Appeals Victory, Ending 9-year Legal Battle

"RAW is here to stay, and we won't roll over to Republic or any of Mega Tobacco's attempts to sue us into silence." says Kesselman. They may sue us, or try to buy us, but RAW will never sell out!"

The case began in 2016 when RAW^® contacted Republic to point out the similarity between RAW^®'s distinctive Organic Hemp product packaging and Republic's OCB^® Organic Hemp paper packaging. The RAW^® brand has a consistent look across products and is arguably one of the most recognizable and popular with consumers. In 2009, RAW^® launched its RAW^® Organic Hemp line of products. In 2010, Republic Tobacco introduced in Europe OCB^® Organic Hemp, which to RAW^® and HBI looked remarkably like its RAW^® Organic Hemp package. Republic Tobacco also created merchandising that RAW^® believed infringed its copyright-protected design.

HBI Innovations announces Court of Appeals Victory, Ending 9-year Legal Battle

When Republic introduced the OCB^® Organic Hemp product in the US in 2014, RAW^® reached out to Republic to discuss the matter. Republic responded by suing RAW^® in federal court in Illinois, seeking a declaratory judgment saying it had not infringed on anything. RAW^® counterclaimed for infringement, and then Republic brought a series of allegations, including that RAW had made misstatements on its products and marketing materials, and that RAW was "marijuana paraphernalia," and therefore illegal.

Republic alleged that RAW^® papers and cones were illegal products because of their association with cannabis (a claim that did not survive to trial), false advertising under the federal Lanham Act, and deceptive trade practices and unfair competition under Illinois state law.

After five years of discovery and a multi-week trial, in 2021 a jury concluded that Republic had willfully infringed the RAW^® Organic Hemp trade dress with Republic's 99-cent version of its OCB^® organic hemp product, and that Republic had willfully infringed RAW^®'s copyright-protected "Sold Here" sign. The jury awarded over $1 million in damages to RAW, which along with prejudgment interest brought the total award to nearly $1.5 million.

The jury also found that none of RAW's product statements violated the federal Lanham Act. But, the jury simultaneously found for Republic on the Illinois Deceptive Trade Practices Act and the claim for unfair competition based on the same factual allegations. Republic then sought disgorgement of RAW's profits - totalling in the tens of millions - which in 2023, the Court ruled that Republic Tobacco was entitled to neither damages nor disgorgement of profits.

More information about the trial and previously entered judgement can be found here.

SOURCE: Asha Media Group

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