The No Stolen Trademarks Honored Act of 2023 passes the senate.

[El Presidente]

 

The US Senate passed a bill Tuesday banning enforcement or validation of any trademark confiscated by Cuba’s government, joining the House and sending the bill to the White House.

The No Stolen Trademarks Honored Act of 2023—unanimously passed in both chambers—would expand the prohibition against US federal courts enforcing rights to trademarks confiscated by Cuba then asserted by Cuban nationals. The bill would also bar the US Patent and Trademark Office from recognizing, enforcing, or otherwise validating any assertion of rights to such marks.

The bill introduced by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) also removes “Cuban nationals” from the law’s restrictions ...

 

[MrBirdman]

I see General Cigar upped their lobbying budget this quarter. Not sure this will help them much in their Cohiba battle since it wasn’t stolen and the ruling last year was under a trademark treaty. Cuba was always barred from registering the trademark themselves in the US anyway. Theres also the Havana club dispute but again I don’t know if that’s actually stolen or not. GC are the thieves when it comes to Cohiba as far as I’m concerned. 

[BrightonCorgi]

What does this mean in layman's terms?

[CaptainQuintero]

8 hours ago, BrightonCorgi said:

What does this mean in layman's terms?

I read it as the Cuban brands (cigar brands for our sake) acquired via the revolution are recognised as stolen as far as the US is concerned and the original owners still own all rights.

[Chibearsv]

Using some help from CCW and a bit of logic, If I'm reading this correctly, then these are the brands that are/were at stake with a handful of additions and removals?:

By the mid-1960s, only 24 brands remained of the approximately 140 that had existed prior to the Revolution.

Bolivar Cifuentes El Rey del Mundo Fonseca Gispert H. Upmann Hoyo de Monterrey Jose L. Piedra Juan Lopez La Escepcion La Flor de Cano Los Statos de Luxe

Montecristo Partagás Por Larrañaga Punch Quintero Rafael Gonzalez Maria Guerrero Ramon Allones Romeo y Julieta Sancho Panza Saint Luis Rey Troya

 

[rabidraccoon]

I believe the only brands this could affect are Trinidad TTT and Red Dot Cohiba (stolen by Atladis and General respectively) as all the others are already free to use the Cuban branding (and do so). I don't even know what kind of case General and Altadis could make about Trinidad and Cohiba being stolen from them. Is this part of some General Executive's wet dream scenario to use the real Cohiba logo? I'm sure it would fool tons of uninformed consumers in the US (which is most consumers). I'm sure China would gleefully point out that America steals IP if it became a reality lol.

[Cigar Surgeon]

Charlie did a writeup on it:

https://halfwheel.com/congress-passes-bill-targeting-stolen-cuban-trademarks-heads-to-president/445013/

[BoliDan]

So, cementing general cigars will continue stealing namesake and so will Bacardi with their Havana Club Rum. But this ruling signals that basically international copy rights mean nothing if a government has a bs reason to not recognize them. I don't see any global problems arising from this. 👌

[MrBirdman]

10 hours ago, rabidraccoon said:

Is this part of some General Executive's wet dream scenario to use the real Cohiba

The logo and the band would fall under copyright law, not trademark protections, so this wouldn’t affect that. 

It’s unclear what the goal is here or if this really represents much of a change in the substantive law.