• The Wall Street Journal , Tuesday, April 12, 2011 10:15 AM

Australia is the first government in the world to introduce proposed laws that would ban logos and branding from tobacco packaging. The laws would make logos, branding, colors and promotional text illegal beyond packets. It also would put product names in standard colors and positions in a regular font and size on packets colored a dark olive/brown, a color that has the lowest appeal to smokers, per government research. Health warnings with graphic images of the harmful effects of smoking will have to make up 75% of the front of the packaging and 90% of the back.

Big Tobacco, well aware of a potential domino effect, is likely to fight it. Said the nation's health minister, Nicola Roxon, "This plain packaging legislation is a world first and sends a clear message that the glamour is gone. Cigarette packs will now only show the death and disease that can come from smoking."

No. 2 global tobacco company British American Tobacco PLC, which is the biggest cigarette seller in Australia, said the laws would rob it of intellectual property rights and would breach international trademark laws.

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