Havana: Cuba wins latest lawsuit in 25-year-old legal dispute over trademark rights of famous US Cohiba cigars Which is the smoke that Fidel Castro once liked, the company marketing them said Friday.
On December 20, the U.S. Trademark Review and Appeal Board It has canceled General Cigar Company’s U.S. trademark registration for the word ‘Cohiba’ for cigars, said Habanos SA, a joint venture between Britain’s Altadis and state-run Cubatabaco.
General Cigar sells the non-Cuban Cohiba brand in the United States. which cannot legally sell Cuban cohibas due to US trade sanctions
The ruling means that Cubatabaco can register a trademark for the Cohiba brand, considered the best of the 27 cigars sold in more than 100 countries in the United States. Although cigars cannot be sold there.
General Cigar said it would appeal.
Cubatabaco Says U.S. Trademark Battle Back in 1997
Cohiba cigars were first rolled in 1966, and the name derives from the word indigenous peoples used centuries ago to refer to the tobacco they smoked.
Castro, who died in 2016, had a tantrum with cohibas until breaking the habit in 1985.
Tobacco is one of Cuba’s main export revenues. Tobacco revenue grew 15 percent in 2021 to a total of $568 million, according to Habanos SA.
