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oi500 Domain names secured in the first round of countries where we have registered our o! ™

Paris ‘E-CIG SHOW 2015’ introduced the International Electronic Cigarette Show.

Internet banking facilities arranged at HSBC for The O Holding Company Limited and the O Company Limited.

As of this month 80% of all e-cigarette sales in convenience stores in the US comprised products made by tobacco companies. This represented an increase of 6% on March 2014 sales.

We received the Certificate of Registration for our o! ™ trademark from IP Australia/The Australian Government.

We received the Certificate of Registration for our o! ™ trademark from the Patents Office in Ireland.

The CECMOL 2015 China International International Vapor Expo. Our team went to the Shenzhen Convention and Exhibition Centre. It was marketed as a platform for connecting all major industry players and industry leaders together to facilitate further industry development. The event was attended by major R&D and OEM manufacturers, raw materials producers, major industry dealers, as well as well-known researchers and scientists working in the field of alternatives to smoking. This was a perfect opportunity to see what was going on.

New samples for o! box and master box packaging finalized.

The o! Hong Kong Trade Mark lodged claiming a priority against the original mark lodged.

Advertising/creative agency appointed. IT team, graphic designers and creative agency work together to consolidate the o! selling concept ideas.

IT team was established to work on the o! global website. The o! in-house design team and our IT team joined forces to build the o! global website. Discussions with advertising and creative agencies progressed.

HSBC confirmed the opening of bank accounts for The O Holding Company Limited and the O Company Limited.

Packaging for o! English language and Russian language box packs and cartons finalized. Proofs have been approved.

A study undertaken by the internationally regarded Cochrane Library found a third of long-term smokers were able to cut their cigarette consumption in half by using e-cigarettes.

The o! Australian Trade Mark application lodged claiming a priority against the original mark lodged in Ireland on 15 September 2014.

OHIM Trade Mark application lodged claiming a priority against the original mark lodged in Ireland on 15 September 2014.

WIPO Trade Mark applications made claiming a priority against the original mark lodged in the Russian Federation on 8 September 2014.

The UK National Health Service concluded in November 2014, "While e-cigarettes may be safer than conventional cigarettes, we don’t yet know the long-term effects of vaping on the body. There are clinical trials in progress to test the quality, safety and effectiveness of e-cigarettes, but until these are complete, the government can’t give any advice on them or recommend their use”.

The UK's Advertising Standards Authority changed the regulations on e-cigarette advertising, allowing the devices to appear in TV ads from 10 November.

VapExpo. Three days at “La Grande Hall de la Villette”, Paris, France.

Republic of Ireland Trade Mark application issued. We used this application as the priority when we made the European application to OHIM for registration of the trademark in each individual EU country.

A big day. The O! company structures were incorporated in Hong Kong. The Certificates of Incorporation were issued by the Registrar of Companies for the Hong Kong Special Administration Region (Hong Kong). The O Holding Company Limited and The O Company Limited were born.

The Russian Federation Trade Mark application was lodged. Intention is to use this application as the

Decision made to use Hong Kong as the head office for the e-Cigarette business. Applications made to Registrar of Companies in Hong Kong to incorporate both a holding company and a trading company.

Following two weeks of deliberation we selected 54 countries for the first round of o! trademark registrations. Decision was made to get the trade mark registrations lodged ASAP by splitting the registration application work between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Ireland and Hong Kong.

Selection of additional design team members commenced. In-house artwork and design staff worked with contract graphic and IT designers. Contract advertising staff joined our team for the set-up project.

Vladimir Tsesler finalized the ‘o!’ brand logo. The launch was attended by our principles and in-house design team, as wells as our team members from Australia and Germany. All were delighted with the arresting and sophisticated design of this world-renowned graphic artist. Everyone was extremely optimistic about the brand’s future in the world market.

A report produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, found there was not enough evidence to determine if electronic cigarettes could help people quit smoking, but allowed for the possibility and made various recommendations as to a suitable regulatory framework for them. It suggested that smokers should be encouraged to use approved methods for help when quitting, but also cited expert opinions in scientific papers that suggested e-cigarettes could have a role helping people quit who have failed using other methods.

The UK's National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training, which provides training and accreditation to NHS "stop smoking practitioners", issued a new guideline downplaying concerns about e-cigarettes and stating that smoking cessation professionals should support e-cigarette users, although they remained unable to prescribe e-cigarettes. The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) released a statement recognising that e-cigarettes "could make harm reduction a reality for smokers" and that they "can provide an effective, affordable and readily available retail alternative" to traditional forms of tobacco. They noted that the products presented potential risks in addition to benefits and therefore advised appropriate regulation in order to "maximise the overall public health benefit". In summary, the RCP stated that, "On the basis of available evidence, the Royal College of Physicians believes that e-cigarettes could lead to significant falls in the prevalence of smoking in the UK, prevent many deaths and episodes of serious illness, and help to reduce the social inequalities in health that tobacco smoking currently exacerbates." In the US the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) concluded, "E-cigarettes have not been fully studied, so consumers currently don’t know: the potential risks of e-cigarettes when used as intended, how much nicotine or other potentially harmful chemicals are being inhaled during use, or whether there are any benefits associated with using these products. Additionally, it is not known whether e-cigarettes may lead young people to try other tobacco products, including conventional cigarettes, which are known to cause disease and lead to premature death.”

Vapor Expo International in Rosemount, Illinois, USA.

Two days in Miami, Florida, USA. A trade fair, marketed by ‘World Vapor Expo’ as a public event to provide consumers with an opportunity to sample and purchase electronic cigarette products.

World Vapour Expo held at the Miami Beach Convention Center in the heart of Miami Beach, Florida. A three day event for businesses and the public.

The interviewing of design staff for artistic involvement in our brand continued. We heard many suggestions and thoughts each day but nothing especially exciting. Early days.

Cancer Research UK released the following statement: "Electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) are almost certainly much safer than tobacco cigarettes and may help smokers to cut down or quit smoking. We support the use of high quality e-cigarettes because we believe that they have significant potential to help smokers who aren't otherwise ready or able to quit smoking by providing them with much safer alternatives to smoked tobacco. It is important that regulation does not stifle the development of this market nor make accessing these products by smokers more difficult. However, the current safeguards are insufficient to ensure that these products are as safe as nicotine replacement therapy and to ensure that they are not marketed to non-smokers and children."

The first meeting with the artist Vladimir Tsesler. We discovered his work in the Louvre and found him in the Russian Federation. Tsesler’s a national treasure. Following the group’s fairly intensive period of market research, our Russian Federation partner briefed Tsesler on the e-Cigarette industry and our own aspirations. Tsesler immediately grasped the challenge, coming up with ideas for a logo and its integration with both the design and marketing teams.

Decision made to use existing well-established premises within the group companies as the infrastructure was already in place to support operations. Still discussing whether or not head office for the brand should be Hong Kong or Shanghai.

Discussions continued. We decided that we must own the brand and appoint distributors in different countries. If we owned the brand we controlled the quality and the good name of the brand. We also decided we needed to open a distribution and export warehouse in China to service customers on a global basis

Every day we heard or read something new about e-cigs. The previous evening’s Irish television news reported the Welsh government was considering a move to ban the use of e-cigs in public places. The issue was being hotly debated in Wales.

General discussion concluded that to make the e-Cigarette business a success we would need to develop a separate corporate structure in which we created our own brand, registered our trade mark world wide and built an on-line website that operated in different countries, in addition to the creation of a design and manufacturing base.

We had a discussion with our Russian Federation partner. Overall opinion was that the e-Cigarette business could be a very interesting business to be involved in but we would have to have our own brand to promote. Decision made to learn more about the business.

As of this month 74% of all e-cigarette sales in convenience stores in the U.S. were products made by tobacco companies.

The US FDA published proposed regulations similar to those introduced by the European Parliament.

VapExpo. Three days at the “lnternational Exhibition of Electronic Cigarette and Vaping” in Bordeaux, France.

The European Parliament passed regulations standardizing liquids and personal vapours, and requiring the listing of ingredients and the use of childproof liquid containers. A survey in France estimated that between 7.7 and 9.2 million people had tried e-cigarettes with 1.1 to 1.9 million people using them on a daily basis. Over two thirds of smokers in the survey used e-cigarettes to reduce or quit smoking.

In the UK e-cigarette user numbers increased from 700,000 in 2012 to 2.1 million in 2013. Vaping amongst the younger generation had exceeding smoking. In France sales were reported to be in the region of €100,000 and the market was expected to grow substantially.

Some 3.4% of American adults estimated to have tried e-Cigarettes.

First known introduction of e-cigarettes to the market place.

The modern e-cigarette arose from an invention by Hon Lik in China.

The earliest e-cigarette can be traced to American Herbert A. Gilbert who, in 1963, patented "a smokeless non-tobacco cigarette" that involved "replacing burning tobacco and paper with heated, moist, flavored air". This device produced flavoured steam without nicotine. The patent was granted in 1965. Gilbert’s invention was ahead of its time. There were prototypes, but it received little attention and was never commercialized because smoking was still fashionable and the medical community’s warnings of the health risks associated with smoking were not fully accepted.