Fake Cigars Get Rolled in Cuba Case (Cohiba)

A federal judge in Manhattan yesterday said American trademark law protects Cuba's premium Cohiba brand of cigars and ordered a New York company to quit selling stogies under that name.

Cohibas were originally created in Cuba as the personal cigars of Fidel Castro and were later given as gifts to visiting heads of state and other dignitaries.

Where can I find these?

Corona Cigar near Orlando takes orders over the web (www.coronacigar.com) for the Davidoff Millennium Editions. You might also be able to stock up on Dominican Cohibas before they're no longer available.

Actually, there were two different non-Cuban "Cohiba" brands until a couple of years ago. One used the distinctive yellow and black checkerboard similar to the Cuban Cohibas, while the other used a label commonly referred to as the "Red Dot" Cohiba. The two manufacturers went at it until only one remained, but for the life of me I can't remember which one (I didn't think that either was worth the money so the memory filed that info in the "wasted knowledge" department.

Also, as was mentioned, there are a large number of Cuban brands which left when Castro took over and reestablished themselves in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Nicaragua etc., as well as the area around Tampa. If and when the Cuban Embargo (Trading with the Enemy Act) is repealed and trade reestablished there will be massive lawsuits. Also, many of the brands in Cuba are made by multiple state-managed factories and then boxed by brand. The noticible exception is Partagas, who I believe has their own factory for their brand exclusively. Cohibas are made in four or five different factories.

They were not counterfeit Cubans. They were sold as Dominican cigars using the same name as the Cuban cigars. This is actually a common practice. H. Upmann, Montecristo, Partagas, and many others do the same thing.

True to a point, but the difference is this was a company that had no affiliation with the Cuban Cohiba. They just took the name and started using it. The brands you mentioned all make both Cubans and non-Cubans, but are part of the same company.

"The brands you mentioned all make both Cubans and non-Cubans, but are part of the same company."

Not true. Say you buy a non-cuban Partagas. The company has NO affiliation with the company producing the cuban Partagas. The original maker of the cuban Partagas left Cuba years ago and moved to another country and set up shop. They have been allowed to sell under the Partagas brand because of their original ownership of the brand. The cuban Partagas brand is being produced by state owned factories in Cuba. This is the same case for all the cigars produced inside and outside Cuba under the same name brands. The difference with Cohiba is the producer of the non-cuban version has never had any connection with the original producers in Cuba. They just "stole" the name.

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