Court Rules in Favor of Cuban Cigar Company in Fight over COHIBA
On May 8th, 2025, Judge Leonie M. Brinkema of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in favor of the Cuban company Empresa Cubana del Tabaco (Cubatabaco) in its decades-old fight against General Cigar, a leading U.S. cigar company, over the U.S. rights to the trademark COHIBA for cigars.
COHIBA is internationally known, including the United States, as a Cuban cigar of the highest quality, considered the best of the best.
The federal court affirmed the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board’s cancellation of General Cigar’s registrations of COHIBA in proceedings brought by Cubatabaco and dismissed with prejudice General Cigar’s attempt to overturn the TTAB’s decision. Cancellation of General Cigar’s registrations opens the way for Cubatabaco to register the COHIBA trademark mark in the United States.
The court found that General Cigar, a leading U.S. cigar company, knew that Cubatabaco was using COHIBA when it applied to register COHIBA in the United States in March 1978. Among other evidence, the court pointed to internal memoranda in the files of General Cigar unearthed by Cubatabaco that COHIBA was already a “brand in Cuba” and “Castro’s brand cigar.”
Under the Pan-American Convention, to which both Cuba and the United States are parties, countries are obligated to cancel a registration when the applicant – here, General Cigar – knew the trademark is already being used in another treaty country. The court applied the Pan-American Convention in ruling in favor of Cubatabaco.
“We are pleased that Judge Brinkema, like the U.S. Trademark Board, was willing to recognize and enforce the treaty rights of Cubatabaco, a Cuban company, even though the U.S. embargo currently prevents sale of Cuban cigars in the United States”, said Lisset Fernández García, speaking on behalf of Cubatabaco. “It has vindicated our position that, all along, the rights to COHIBA rightfully belong to the Cuban company”, she continued.
Cubatabaco’s fight for the trademark rights to COHIBA in the United States dates back more than 25 years, when it first brought proceedings in the Trademark Board in 1997. The litigation between Cubatabaco and General Cigar has included extended proceedings in the federal courts as well as before the Trademark Board.
Michael Krinsky of Rabinowitz Boudin Standard Krinsky & Lieberman, P.C., a New York law firm, is lead counsel for Cubatabaco. Natasha Reed of Foley Hoag LLP and Benjamin Hatch of McGuireWoods LLP are co-counsel.
