Japan Tobacco International (JTI) will acquire heat-not-burn patents from Ploom and the trademark. The US company will buy out JTI’s minority interest and market vaporizers under a new brand, the companies said.

Rights to the Ploom trademark, the modelTwo vaporizer and pods will go to JTI for an undisclosed amount. San Francisco-based Ploom will change its name to Pax Labs and market its Pax open-system vaporizer, a product that also heats loose-leaf tobacco. About a half million Pax units have been sold in the US and Canada, Ploom said.
“This partnership has afforded both parties many mutual benefits, and we are proud of our success with the pods product line,” said Ploom founder James Monsees, the chief executive officer at Pax Labs. “Both companies will profit from this fresh approach.”
“This agreement is a natural evolution of our fruitful partnership and enables both companies to concentrate independently on their areas of expertise”, said Masamichi Terabatake, JTI deputy CEO. “With our manufacturing and tobacco know-how, JTI has facilitated the development of the innovative Ploom tobacco vapor pods2 and this is an important element in the continuous expansion of our next generation products portfolio.”