Cubatabaco has won a 12 year long legal battle against General Cigar for us of the Cohiba name in the US.

For the time being, General will still be allowed to use the name on their Dominican made cigars pending an appeal.  Court documents state that General Cigar has a “substantial possibility of success” with such an appeal.  Most court cases are challenging enough as each lawmaker and judge has their own interpretation of how these laws apply.  Having a foreign company suing a US company, when they are not even allowed to distribute their product in the US, makes it even more challenging.  As the laws are written, a permanent injunction cannot be granted without showing that the defendant’s company acted in “bad faith” and that the plaintiff’s company has suffered “irreparable injury” that cannot be rectified by monetary means alone.  You can bet this won’t be the end of this battle.

It will be interesting to see how this impacts other brands distributed in the US using names of classic Cuban cigars, some of those companies might not like having the shoe on the other foot. =]

You can read more on this at Courthouse News Service – here.

For a copy of the ruling click here.