A Retail Operation Goes Up in Smoke
Connoisseurs of cigars will soon be deprived of their favorite Havanas.
France’s state-owned tobacco distributor said it will stop selling Monte Cristo, H. Upmann and Por Larranaga cigars Sept. 7 because of an appeals court ruling in a trademark dispute.
The court upheld a 1989 ruling that the three brand names belong not to Cuba’s state tobacco operation but to a Spanish tobacco firm, Tabacalera. It bought the trademark from the original private owners, who fled Cuba when it became Marxist in 1959.
The three brands, marketed worldwide by Cuba’s state tobacco company, Cubatabaco, accounted for most of the 7.7 million large Cuban cigars sold last year in France, the second-biggest buyer of Havanas after Spain.
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