TAAT Brings on U.S. Patent Attorney with Fortune 100 Experience as Counsel to Manage IP

Given the competitive significance of intellectual property in the tobacco industry, the Company has brought on registered U.S. Patent Attorney Edmond DeFrank as counsel to manage its IP portfolio. Mr. DeFrank has written and prosecuted more than 1,000 patent and trademark applications for clients to include Microsoft, IBM, and NASA. Mr. DeFrank also provides anti-counterfeiting services, working with government bodies as well as some of the world’s largest e-commerce and social media platforms to prevent counterfeit consumer goods from entering the market. The Company intends to utilize Mr. DeFrank’s comprehensive scope of experience to strengthen, maximize, and protect its intellectual property portfolio.

LAS VEGAS and VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Jan. 15, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TAAT LIFESTYLE & WELLNESS LTD. (CSE: TAAT) (OTCQB: TOBAF) (FRANKFURT: 2TP2) (the “Company” or “TAAT”) is pleased to announce that it has brought on Edmond DeFrank, a patent and trademark attorney based in Los Angeles, California, as counsel to manage its intellectual property (“IP”) as the Company seeks to further establish its IP portfolio and take proactive measures to assert and defend its IP rights in all relevant global jurisdictions. Mr. DeFrank is a registered U.S. Patent Attorney with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), and has written and prosecuted over 1,000 trademark and patent applications for large corporations, educational institutions, and government agencies. Additionally, Mr. DeFrank specializes in anti-counterfeiting by working with state, federal, and foreign government bodies to prevent the importation and sale of goods that infringe upon clients’ IP rights, a persisting area of concern in the tobacco industry. The Company believes that Mr. DeFrank’s leadership and expertise can play a key role in protecting and maximizing the value of the Company’s IP to include the TAAT and Beyond Tobacco brand names as well as proprietary attributes relating to the Company’s products.

In a press release dated September 4, 2020, the Company announced it had filed its first U.S. patent for a refinement technique used in the processing of Beyond Tobacco which causes the base material to taste and smell similarly to actual tobacco. In the USD $814 billion global tobacco industry, patents have long been instrumental to the ability of tobacco firms to capitalize upon their investments in novel developments of sorts. Sustained industry attention to reduced-risk products (“RRP”) has largely been the driving force behind a recent surge in patent applications made by tobacco industry players. Philip Morris International (“PMI”), the world’s largest tobacco company, was listed in the 100 Top Patent Filers by the European Patent Office in 2016 with nearly 4,000 pending patent applications globally. PMI has also invested more than USD $3 billion since 2008 in research, product development, and scientific substantiation for smoke-free products¹.