A Cohiba cigar, central to the decades-long US trademark dispute between General Cigar and Cubatabaco. Photo credit: Nick Winslow, CC3.0.
General Cigar Co. has filed a new appeal in its nearly 30-year legal battle with Cuba’s state-owned cigar company, Empresa Cubana del Tabaco (Cubatabaco), over the US rights to the Cohiba trademark.
The move follows a May 2025 decision by Judge Leonie Brinkema of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, who upheld the US Patent and Trademark Office’s move to cancel General’s two Cohiba trademarks. Brinkema ruled that Cubatabaco enjoyed trademark protection in Cuba, giving it certain rights in the United States under the Inter-American Convention treaty.
General Cigar, a subsidiary of Scandinavian Tobacco Group, is not disputing Brinkema’s findings on Cuban trademark protection but is challenging what it describes as procedural errors that have emerged over decades of litigation. In its latest brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, the company accused Cubatabaco of “forum shopping” and manipulating the judicial process by pursuing identical claims across multiple courts and agencies.
The Cohiba dispute dates back to 1997, when Cubatabaco petitioned the US Patent and Trademark Office to cancel General’s trademark and simultaneously filed a separate lawsuit in New York seeking rights to the name. After General prevailed in both district court and on appeal to the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in 2005,
Cubatabaco renewed its challenge through the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in 2011. That board initially dismissed the claim, but a later ruling from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit revived the case.
In December 2022, the TTAB again ruled for Cubatabaco, leading to General’s 2023 lawsuit in Virginia federal court and the May 2025 ruling now under appeal. General is asking the Fourth Circuit for a de novo review, which would allow the court to reconsider the case from the beginning rather than relying on earlier decisions.
The case could determine whether US authorities have the legal authority to cancel or transfer trademarks owned by American companies under the long-standing Cuban trade embargo. General argues that the Second Circuit’s 2005 ruling—widely seen as a victory for the US company—should remain controlling precedent.
General Cigar sells its non-Cuban Cohiba line exclusively in the US., while Cuban-made Cohibas are produced by Habanos S.A. and sold internationally. The US embargo prevents Habanos from marketing or selling its Cohibas in the United States.
General Cigar is represented by Andrew Deutsch, J. Kevin Fee, and Stanley Panikowski of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP.