Cuba wins a battle against the United States.
After more than twenty-five years of legal tussle, Havana wins the commercial dispute over the Cohiba cigar brand.
Indeed, the American company General Cigar sells Cohiba cigars, while this name already designates the famous cigar launched in 1966 and which was the favorite of Fidel Castro.
Its name refers to the term used by the Taïnos Indians, one of the peoples originating from Cuba, to evoke the rolled tobacco leaves that they smoked.
The Court of the United States Patent and Trademark Office has ruled: General Cigar was aware of this origin when it registered the trademark in March 1978, reports the Argentine daily
La Nacion
.
However, the Inter-American Convention for the Protection of Trade and Trademarks, to which the United States and Cuba adhere, specifies that
"a country is required to reject or cancel a trademark registration"
if it is proven that the plaintiff had knowledge of its use in another nation signatory to the convention.
See also Cigars and watches
A symbolic victory
The rights to the Cohiba brand therefore belong to Cubatabaco, the historic Cuban tobacco company, which has a catalog of nearly thirty cigar brands, offered in around a hundred countries.
However, this victory remains very symbolic: Cubatabaco will not be able to sell its authentic Cohiba in the United States because of the American embargo in force since 1962.