Close … But No Cigar!

Article by Paul Walsh and Ville Patja

This was a case involving the parallel importation of Cuban cigars bearing famous cigar brands such as H Upmann and Punch into the United Kingdom. The case gives further guidance on the sort of circumstances in which a brand owner has "consented" to sales of branded product in the EU with the result that its trade mark rights are "exhausted".

In Cuba, tobacco and cigar production is essentially state controlled. Whilst the majority of farms are in private ownership cigars are manufactured in factories, the majority of which are owned by the Cuban Ministry of Agriculture. A joint venture company Corporacion Habanos SA (50% Cuban State owned, 50% owned by European interests) (HSA) was granted by the Cuban government the exclusive right to buy, sell and market nationally and internationally Cuban rolled tobacco and owned relevant tobacco trade marks such as H Upmann and Punch. HSA granted another company, Hunters & Frankau Ltd (H&F)