Australia tobacco law did not infringe rights says High Court

Tobacco companies' intellectual property rights were not infringed by forcing them to sell cigarettes in plain packets, Australia's highest court said on Friday (5 October 2012), killing off any domestic challenge to the plain-packet ruling.

Australia's highest court in August dismissed a challenge by international cigarette companies to tough anti-tobacco marketing laws in a major test case that means from December 1, cigarettes and tobacco products must be sold in plain green packets with graphic health warnings, such as pictures of mouth cancer and other smoking-related illnesses.

Tobacco giants British American Tobacco, Britain's Imperial Tobacco, Philip Morris and Japan Tobacco challenged the laws, saying the rules were unconstitutional because they effectively acquired their intellectual property rights.

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