On May 7, 2025, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of Cubatabaco in its ongoing legal battle with General Cigar Co., a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, over the COHIBA trademark. The court upheld the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s decision to cancel General Cigar’s US trademark registrations for the COHIBA mark used on its cigars. This marks another chapter in a dispute that began in the mid-1990s.
Régis Broersma, Chief Commercial Officer of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, commented: “We are of course disappointed by this decision, but we and our advisors will now study the ruling closely and of course consider the opportunity to appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. Our federal trademark registrations which are the subject of the dispute, would remain valid and enforceable during a pending appeal. We expect the long dispute to continue before the courts.”
The ruling pertains specifically to federal trademark registrations and does not affect General Cigar’s common law trademark rights, which stem from its decades-long use of the COHIBA mark in the US. General Cigar’s COHIBA cigars, produced in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Honduras, and the US, remain available to consumers as they have been for nearly 50 years.
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