The Court of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (TTAB) ruled again in favor of the Cuban Tobacco Company (Cubatabaco) in a 30-year litigation for the rights in that country over the Cohiba trademark.
As communicated by Habanos SA on your websitethe TTAB ordered the cancellation of Cohiba’s registrations by General Cigar following legal proceedings initiated by Cubatabaco.
The sentence opens the way for the Cuban company to register the Cohíba brand in the United States. General Cigar has the right to appeal the ruling.
The Court found that the US company General Cigar knew Cohiba was the name of a Cuban cigar when it first applied to register the trademark in March 1978, the information said.
Among other evidence, the report added, the Board pointed to internal memoranda in General Cigar files discovered by Cubatabaco indicating that Cohiba was already a “brand in Cuba” and “Castro’s cigar brand.”
Under the Inter-American Convention for Trade and Trademark Protection (1929), to which both Cuba and the United States are parties, countries are obliged to reject or cancel a registration when the applicant knows that a trademark was already being used in another country.
Despite this, General Cigar has been selling cigars in the US under the well-known name Cohiba, the information points out.
Cubatabaco began litigation for trademark rights in the United States in 1997, when it filed a proceeding before the TTAB for the first time. The lawsuit included protracted proceedings in federal courts as well as before the Court of the Patent and Trademark Office.
Michael Krinsky of Rabinowitz Boudin Standard Krinsky & Lieberman, PC, a New York law firm, has been Cubatabaco’s lead attorney, according to the Cuban company.
Cohiba owes its name to the Tainos, who named the rolled tobacco leaves they smoked.
Habanos, SA is a world leader in the commercialization of Premium cigars both in Cuba and in the rest of the world and has an exclusive distribution network present in more than 150 countries.
