Building Out Global IP Assets

Taat Seeks to Expand Intellectual Property Portfolio with 17 Trademark Applications Filed in 15 Jurisdictions - Seite 2

Asia/Middle East

• Hong Kong
• China
• South Korea
• Pakistan
• India
• Japan
• Israel
• Singapore

Europe

• European Union
• United Kingdom

North America

• Canada
• Mexico

Oceania

• Australia
• New Zealand

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/49bf7a42-a13e-4def ...

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In the Company’s September 4, 2020 press release announcing its recent patent filing, the role of patents in the tobacco industry was detailed to highlight the significance of this development in the Company’s efforts to align itself with incumbent tobacco firms. In 2016 and 2019 respectively, Philip Morris International (“PMI”)² and Japan Tobacco International (“JTI”)³ were each listed in the 100 Top Patent Filers by the European Patent Office, demonstrating the importance of patents in the business of tobacco companies. The competitive advantages that are generally afforded by trademark protection appear to be of significant importance to the tobacco industry as well. Based on a search using the Trademark Electronic Search System (“TESS”) resource from the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), the five “Big Tobacco” firms appear to have a considerable interest in trademarks. In total, more than 2,000 records were returned for trademark applications from search terms for names of each of the five “Big Tobacco” firms including “Philip Morris”, “British American Tobacco”, “Altria”, “Imperial Tobacco”, and “Japan Tobacco”⁴. The Company intends to file additional trademark applications in the future based on current and anticipated commercial and strategic activities both in the United States and internationally.

Taat CEO Setti Coscarella commented, “Laying the groundwork for building a global brand is an immensely complex and demanding task, because it requires making plans a matter of months or years ahead of intended action. Between Q3 and Q4 2020, our focus has primarily been on creating a playbook for launching Taat in Ohio, as well as potentially in other markets in the United States. Naturally, we are contemplating international expansions in the near term as well, including expansions into Asian markets such as China, where the population of current tobacco smokers is close to the total population of the United States. There are many prerequisites for entering new international markets, and intellectual property rights such as trademarks are crucial in order to legally be able to use a brand name in a new market, when you have worked hard to build and grow that brand in other markets. Just as ‘Big Tobacco’ firms are very diligent about patent protection of innovative technologies and methods, they are similarly diligent about trademark protection of the intellectual property that underpins brand names that can be worth billions of dollars. Now that the ball is rolling with launching Taat in the United States and we are planning out our next steps to potentially expand internationally, it is exciting to be working on these preliminary tasks that could foreshadow the next steps to entering markets across North America, Europe, Asia, and Oceania.”