General Cigar Co. Inc. announced yesterday that the company has reached resolution of a federal trademark lawsuit which alleged infringement of its Cohiba trademark.

The suit was filed in May 2006 in the US District Court for the Southern District of Georgia against defendants Southern Smoke LLC; Corner Cigars Distributing Inc.; Big Dog Cigars LLC, Seminole Cigar Factory and others.
In the lawsuit, General Cigar, a subsidiary of Swedish Match A.B, alleged that the defendants infringed the company's Cohiba trademark in violation of federal and state law by selling and distributing cigars bearing the Cohiba name that were not manufactured by General Cigar. The infringing cigars were sometimes referred to as ‘yellow band Cohiba’ cigars and, like General Cigar's Cohiba cigars, were manufactured in the Dominican Republic.
In resolving the lawsuit, the defendants acknowledged that the ‘yellow band’ Cohiba cigars at issue constituted infringement of General Cigar's Cohiba trademark of cigars in the US. In addition, the defendants agreed to deliver to General Cigar for destruction approximately 10,000 yellow band Cohiba cigars. The defendants also agreed to cooperate with General Cigar in its ongoing efforts to identify sources engaged in infringement of Cohiba cigars in the US. Finally, the defendants consented to entry of a permanent injunction against the sale, marketing, distribution or other use of the Cohiba name in the US on goods not manufactured by General Cigar and will pay General Cigar a cash settlement of an undisclosed amount. (pi)