question on Cohiba from DR

[Bruce T.]

Being a Canadian I don't get to see much choice of cigars for sale except on-line. Due to very high tobacco taxes, punitive anti-smoking laws and long, cold winters, there are not many cigar smokers here. I was in Arizona last week and bought a yellow label Cohiba from the Dominican Republic. As I understand it, there were two main companies that ripped off the Cuban brand name and produced their own Cohiba cigars. In the early 90's General Cigar won the trademark rights in the USA and started to produce the "Red Dot" Cohibas. The other company that was in the DR was allowed to sell off all their remaining inventory of their yellow label versions.
My question is, is the cigar I bought over 15 years old or is their another company ignoring the trademark laws ? The cigar was cheap ($3) and was not memorable at all.
Bruce.

 

[Bruce T.]

This post was about to drop off the page with no replies. I'm a bit surprised. With all the knowledge here someone must know a bit of the recent history of Dominican Cohibas ???

 

[luckysaturn13]

If it was a cohiba for 3$ it was probally fake. =( unless it was a lil pequintos. The Dr cohibas are pretty good cigars my fav is the red dot petit corona. I know that the Dr cohibas and cc cohibas are two dif companies. I've had many of Dr ones but never any cc cohibas it would be cool to try em and see what the differences are.

 

[Bruce T.]

The cigar I bought for $3 was not a red dot made by General Cigar. It had the Cuban style yellow band but where it would normally say "Habanos" under the Cohiba, it said "Dominican Republic". I can't imagine why anyone would counterfeit a cheap Dominican cigar but maybe they do.

 

[HIM*]

Seems like the best info I can find... http://www.cigaraficionado.com/webfeatures/show/id/General-Cigar-Reaches-Settlement-Over-Cohiba-Trademark_2860

The other bit of info I keep coming across is that these aren't supposed to be sold outside of the DR because of trademark infringement issues here in the states.

 

[Angry Bill]

General Cigars paid to keep the trademarked name for usage in the U.S. Market. With the upcoming embargo lift, we will see if Habanos SA still allows General to use the name though. There are other companies that may also get Sud for using Cuban Cigar names. It's going to be an interesting battle over the next year or two.

Personally, the DR version of the Cohiba is garbage for my palate, but others may find it great. The wonderful thing about having 2000 brands worldwide is there is always a cigar for someone to enjoy, as palates are different for everyone.

 

[luckysaturn13]

I actually have a similar one in my humidor I picked up in ybor city about 7 years ago. When I get a chance I'll take a pic and we can compare. I wonder if they were the de cohibas that closed shop

 

[Mossome]

Does it look like this:

My brother-in-law bought this for me on his honeymoon in Punta Cana over 10 years ago. Not knowing anything about cigars, he believed it was an authentic Cuban when he gave it to me. I don't know if he was intentionally deceived, or just misunderstood because of the language difference (either is entirely possible). I just assumed it was a fake and left it at that. Now hearing that this may just be General Cigar's production of their "Cohiba" brand doesn't really change my thinking all that much.

 

[HIM*]

From what I can tell from that CA article it wasn't a general cigar product. General cigar sued the company that was making them for trademark infringement and it seems they won around 06-07.

 

[luckysaturn13]

That's what mine looks like but w o the box paid 8$ for a robusto

 

[dpricenator]

In regards to the OP's comment that some companies ripped off the cuban cigars brand's names. The Cuban Government stole the family owned and operated businesses, Many of those EX-owners fled the country to establish lives outside of an oppressive communist nation, and took thier brand names with them. NO idea if Cohiba was one of them, but it will be interesting to see who will have the rights to use those names.

 

[Bruce T.]

The cigar I had looked like the photo posted.
Thanks for the information from everyone, and the opinion on using the Cohiba name. I figured my original post was a bit too political but sometimes it's fun to stir the pot.

Bruce.

 

[Xavier Dredo]

In regards to the OP's comment that some companies ripped off the cuban cigars brand's names. The Cuban Government stole the family owned and operated businesses, Many of those EX-owners fled the country to establish lives outside of an oppressive communist nation, and took thier brand names with them. NO idea if Cohiba was one of them, but it will be interesting to see who will have the rights to use those names.

I believe Cohiba was created after Fidel took over and I don't think General Cigar is made up of Cuban ex-pat business owners.

 

[Mikenice81]

I believe Cohiba was created after Fidel took over and I don't think General Cigar is made up of Cuban ex-pat business owners.

But, if any of the brands were started by people that defected Cuba and had rights to the name, you could be in interesting territory. Say the person that started the first Monte Cristo factory (not sure just a hypothetical) and owned the name fled to the Dominican Republic. If he was marketing the cigar internationally before Castro nationalized the industry he could have a claim to the rights. Now, if he later sold the name to another company, they could claim rights. If the line of acquisitions went on long enough you might end up with people from anywhere owning the rights.

It would be like my F-I-L selling his business. The person that buys it has every right to use the name unless otherwise stipulated in the purchasing agreement. If the second owner sells to a conglomerate that name transfers to the conglomerate, unless otherwise stipulated. This could go on and on until some Swedish guy named Sven is running the company in Europe and it is no longer an American company. However, they still own the true rights even if the government of the US nationalizes the business and tries to continue under the name. Internationally Sven still owns the rights.

At least that is how it was explained to me. I could be dead wrong.