Canadian dry herb vaporizer manufacturer Arizer and Greenlane are being sued by UL for allegedly infringing their well-known UL-in-a-circle certification mark.
It is quite sad news as we do love Arizer vaporizers here at VapeFuse.
What is Arizer being sued for?
UL LLC has filed at the Nothern District of Illinois for trademark infringement, counterfeiting, and unfair competition under the Federal Trademark Act of 1946, known as the Lanham Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1051.
“The Court documents allege “Upon information and belief, Arizer distributed, sold and offered for sale smoke and vapor shop products, including vaporizers and accessories, bearing counterfeit replicas of the UL Marks. On information and belief, Arizer sold, distributed and offered these products for sale throughout the United States, including through its online store at <arizer.com>. On information and belief, Arizer is both a wholesaler and retailer, and sells products to consumers throughout the United States, including in Illinois and this judicial district. On information and belief, Arizer ships its products to customers in the United States from a facility located in Plainfield, Illinois.”
UL certification is a vigorous process and even after being certified, UL follows up with random visits to the factory to make sure that required manufacturing standards are followed properly.
UL made specific reference to electronic cigarettes and vaporizers.
“Electronic cigarettes and vaporizers have become popular consumer items in the past decade. Alongside their increasing popularity, reports of electronic cigarettes and vaporizers catching on fire have also increased. Unsafe electronic cigarettes and vaporizers have exploded in customers’ mouths and have killed at least two people.”
“In 2017, UL released a safety standard UL 8139 to specifically evaluate the safety, heating, battery, and charging systems for electronic cigarettes and vaporizers, for electrical and fire hazards. UL has been working with several electronic cigarette manufacturers to certify products that meet this standard. Unfortunately, manufacturers and distributors like Arizer and Greenlane have been claiming their products are certified by UL when, in fact, they are not.”
The court papers go on to say…
“On information and belief, because the highly publicized safety issues related to electronic cigarettes and vaporizers, many unscrupulous manufacturers responded to this negative press by falsely claiming that their electronic cigarettes, vaporizers, and related accessories, were “UL Certified.””
UL has apparently reached a settlement with AFG and KendyPens and made reference to DaVinci products bearing counterfeit UL marks in the court papers, however, they are only taking one manufacturer to court at this stage, Arizer.
“Arizer is among those manufacturers that began affixing a mark that is identical to or substantially indistinguishable from the UL Certification Marks (the “Counterfeit Mark”).”
And then Greenlane…
Greenlane purchased products from Arizer as well as and other manufacturers and distributors that contained the Counterfeit Mark. On information and belief, Greenlane specifically looked for the UL mark because it would give its customers and consumers a (false) sense of safety.
VapeFuse image used in the court papers
I was quite surprised to see that the 30 pages document filed by UL’s legal representatives included one of our images. There are only 4 images in the document and one showing the Solo and Solo II boxes side by side is our image. You can see the top of the cut off VapeFuse watermark in the bottom right corner.
Should you be concerned about Arizer vaporizers?
If you own an Arizer vaporizer or considering buying one, this news is probably not something you should overly be concerned with. Obviously, I am not sure of the exact situation. However, I have seen and used many vapes over the last few years being on the VapFuse team and Arizer vapes do stand out in terms of quality.
