New York, New York--(Newsfile Corp. - August 29, 2025) - HBI Innovations has achieved a significant triumph, both legally and ethically, in the company's mission to protect its trademark and branding from international copycats. The victory was announced following a Forum arbitration panel decision ordering the transfer of a domain (hbiglobcompany.com) to HBI, after they were found to be impersonating the company while infringing on its registered trademark.

The copycats attempted to deceive consumers by using a "similar logo" to the one seen above.

"These copycats were pretending to be related to HBI, using our name and a similar logo to insinuate they were part of our family. They are absolutely not related to us in any way, and we won't let the market be confused," stated Josh Kesselman, the founder of HBI Innovations, the distributors of RAW rolling papers.

The impersonator(s) appear to have been operating under the name "HBI Group," wherein they used HBI's name and logo in an attempt, at least on the surface, to promote similar services, and capitalize off of HBI's quality reputation and authenticity within the smoking community. The Forum panel clearly determined that the group's use of the domain was "opportunistic bad faith" because they were "pretending to [be] sponsored by HBI" and that such actions created a "likelihood of confusion". After the domain was rightfully transferred to HBI, it now redirects to their official site https://www.hbiinnovations.com/ (formerly http://hbiinternational.com).

Josh Kesselman, the founder of HBI Innovations.

"We have worked and will always work very hard to protect the authenticity and integrity of our brands and the trust of our community," Kesselman revealed. Subsequent investigations uncovered a broader network of social media accounts and domains, all perceived to be infringing on HBI's intellectual property rights. For example, HBI has discovered numerous social media accounts not belonging to it bearing the names, among others, "HBI Company", "HBI International Company", "HBI International Group", "HBI International Group Company" and "HBI International Products". Similarly, it has discovered domains that some of the social media accounts link from, including hbigroup.co.id, indonesiatobacco.co.id, and hbiint.biz. Some featured HBI's signature fleur de leaf logo, former HBI logos, well known HBI owned products, like RAW, and marketing materials - including images of Josh Kesselman himself – without authorization. It appears that the same network later rebranded online as "HBI Group Asia" and "High Business International," but with a seemingly new business angle.

In recent months, HBI has intensified its enforcement efforts, filing takedown requests across various social media platforms such as YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), LinkedIn, and Facebook. Many infringing accounts have been removed and will continue to be. "Nobody should have to worry about being misled! We stood up to them, took away their website and other media, and we will continue to take action to protect our HBI family and the authenticity of our identity and our products," Kesselman stated.

Source: Grasslands

To view the source version of this press release, please visit https://www.newsfilecorp.com/release/264483