A US court ruled in favor of Cuba on the commercial rights of the Cohiba cigarette brand in the United States. This was announced on Friday by the company Habanos SA, which markets the prestigious cigars.
The court ordered “the cancellation of the registration of (the brand) Cohiba by (the US company) General Cigar,” adds Habanos SA, a joint venture formed by Altadis, owned by the British group Imperial Tobacco Group, and Cubatabaco.
The ruling, which is subject to appeal, should allow Cubatabaco to register the Cohiba brand in the United States, the most prestigious of the 27 brands that the company sells in a hundred countries.
Sales prohibited in the United States
However, Cohiba cigars cannot be sold in the United States due to the US embargo in place since 1962 against Cuba.
Habanos SA recalls that the procedure related to the rights of the Cohiba brand in the United States “goes back more than 25 years, when a procedure was filed before the TTAB in 1997.”
Launched in 1966, the Cohiba brand owes its name to the term used by the Taíno Indians, one of the original peoples of Cuba, to designate the rolled tobacco leaves they smoked and which had so surprised Christopher Columbus when he arrived on the island. more than five centuries ago. It was the favorite brand of the leader Fidel Castro (1926-2016).
Cuban tobacco, considered by experts to be the best in the world, is one of the island’s main export products. In 2021, sales increased 15%, for a total of 568 million dollars, despite the effects of the pandemic, according to Habanos SA
Source: BFM TV
