SYDNEY, June 27 (UPI) -- A Philip Morris lawsuit against the Australian government over cigarette packaging is meant to stop a policy before it spreads, a law school dean said.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported Monday the company has initiated legal action to stop Australia's plain packaging laws that force all cigarette brands into the same olive-green package with the name of the brand printed in plain letters.
The company is "protecting their intellectual property and the brand globally in very big markets -- China, Indonesia, India, Vietnam and other parts of the world, the Middle East, and parts of Latin America," Sydney University law school Dean Gillian Triggs said.
"I think the better part of this global debate is going to be that health policy will trump the rights to intellectual property protection and branding in this case," he said.
"So ... if they were to lose on the basis that Australia can impose its own health policy in this area, then that is a profound threat to their capacity to market the brand in other jurisdictions."
Philip Morris may be initiating the first of several efforts to overturn the packaging law.
Federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon said the law, which will be phased in in January 2012, would stand up to legal challenges.
