In the Dominican Republic last Friday, the National Tobacco Institute (INTABACO), the Attorney General’s Department, and Dominican state security institutions impounded 2,871 boxes of counterfeit cigars from tourist centers and stores in that nation.

The latest raids, part of a crack-down by Dominican authorities, netted 40,000 cigars counterfeiting famous brands that included Romeo y Julieta, Cohiba, Montecristo, Davidoff, Partagas, Gloria Cubana, Macanudo, Punch, Troya, and others. The cigars were seized in shopping centers, stores, beaches and tourist plazas in Santo Domingo, Bayahibe, Higuey and Bavaro.

Yesterday, on August 9, INTABACO incinerated 7,000 boxes of confiscated cigars, most with fake Cuban brand labels, seized in this most recent round of raids. The incineration took place in a lot next to INTABACO’s offices, located in the community Villa González, in this northern province.

INTABACO director Adalberto Rosa said that with these actions against the fake cigars, the national tobacco sector will obtain a market free from irregularities that will allow the development of healthy business practices. “These actions represent a hard blow for the cigar forgers who have affected the image of the Dominican Republic abroad,” he said.

Would that it was true and it was that easy.

More on the counterfeit cigar problem after the jump.

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The U.S. Supreme Court today denied review of a lower court ruling that, in the absence of specific U.S. government permission, the U.S. blockade of Cuban products bars the official Cuban tobacco company Cubatabaco from obtaining judicial protection of its COHIBA trademark in the United States.

As a result of the Supreme Court’s ruling, the February 2005 decision of a United States Circuit Court of Appeals, which confirmed General Cigar Company’s exclusive ownership of the COHIBA® mark in the United States, is final and is law of the case.

Cubatabaco announced in response that it will continue to fight for the rights to the COHIBA trademark in the United States. COHIBA is Cuba’s most renowned cigar brand, but cannot be sold in the U.S. because of the U.S. economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

The Cuban company will now pursue its pending application for U.S. government permission for judicial protection of the brand from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, which administers the U.S. blockade. In its amicus curiae brief filed in the Supreme Court, the United States specifically acknowledged that Cubatabaco could pursue this option.

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From Peter Vincent at the Sydney Morning Herald:

In an era where cigarette smoking is in decline for its health effects and faces increasing social censure, there has been quiet growth in the popularity of the cigar.

The theory goes that cigars are about more than just smoking. Sure, aficionados will praise the complex taste of the world’s best cigars, which are made around the Caribbean. But it’s also about how and where you smoke them.

“For me, a cigar is not an everyday thing, it’s something I spoil myself with,” says Spiro Ellul, a Melbourne collector and cigar smoker.

“I spend up to two hours smoking one, with a nice glass of red or a port and I’ll drift off and reflect on my daily life and organise my thoughts.”

Ellul spent about $15,000 last year collecting cigars. He has about 50 boxes in storage. True aficionados leave cigars to age for at least a year in a controlled humidity of between 65 and 75 per cent.

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General Cigar Company disclosed that it has filed suit against seven defendants. They are seeking injunctions and damages for the marketing and distribution of counterfeit COHIBA cigars, trademark infringement, cybersquatting and deceptive trade practices.

Norman Sharp, president of the Cigar Association of America, stated, “Counterfeit cigars erode the prestige, profitability and reputation of the handmade, premium cigar industry. While there is no reliable data available on the volume of counterfeit cigars being sold in the U.S., recent crackdowns have indicated that the problem is much larger than even industry insiders had estimated. In fact, even if such sales account for a small percentage of the estimated $800 million which consumers spent on premium cigars last year, it is an alarmingly profitable business for counterfeiters.”

The court hearing is planned for June 1 at a United States District Court in Las Vegas.

From Julia Preston (NYT):

Cuba cannot enforce the trademark of Cohiba cigars, one of its most prestigious brands, in the United States because of the decades-old trade embargo against President Fidel Castro’s government, a federal appeals court ruled. The Second Circuit Court in New York overturned a May 2004 district court decision that General Cigar, an American company, had violated trademark laws by selling cigars under the Cohiba name in the United States.

Although Cuba never registered the Cohiba trademark in the United States, the lower court judge found that the name was famous enough to deserve protection. But the appeals court ruled that the embargo bars Cuba from acquiring any American trademarks.