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Members of the cigar trade who have seen this cigar and the slide-top coffin it comes in remember that it is not new. It appears to be the exact same cigar that was previously known as the Hannibal Emperador, a brand which appeared during the Cigar Boom and left the market in about 2001. Hannibal cigars were made in a place called Mission Escuba in Indonesia, where tobacco was reportedly planted as early as 1586. The Emperador is a short-filler cigar with all Indonesian-grown tobacco, but given its size, it’s quite a conversation piece. Thompson is selling them for the modest price (now $10 off!) of $24.95 for two; use one to show off to your friends and the other for nerf baseball! While it’s the second-thickest cigar you can buy today – the special-order La Tradicion Cubana “Big One” is the largest available at 192 ring gauge (by 12 inches long), it isn’t the longest. There are three in-production cigars which are longer: the Puros Indios Chief (18 inches by 66 ring) and the Graycliff Original and Graycliff Profesionale Big Bamboo (in your choice of straight-sided or torpedo format!) at 16 inches and 50 ring. Guantanamera trademark fight continues: The struggle over the U.S. rights to the “Guantanamera” cigar brand continues with the filing of an appeal of a U.S. Patent & Trademark Office decision handing such rights to Habanos, S.A. for its Guantanamera brand. The issue arose when the Florida-based Guantanamera Cigar Co. sued Habanos, the Cuban government’s marketing and distribution firm over the American trademark rights to the Guantanamera name. The Cubans introduced a machine-made Guantanamera cigar brand in 2002 in four shapes; the brand’s artwork has a guitar theme that apparently makes reference to the popular “Guajira de Guantanamera” folk song written by Cuban performer Jose Fernandez Diaz in 1929 and made famous in the U.S. by The Sandpipers in 1966. The complaint states that the Guantanamera Cigar Co. has been selling its Guantanamera brand since 1997 and filed for the trademark in May 2001. Habanos objected to the use of the name and planned to obtain the trademark itself and the issue has been in dispute since 2002. The brand is a good seller, although at a very low price point for Habanos; testimony in the case indicated that 3.4 million Guantanameras were sold in 2002 and then sales increased to 11.6 million in 2003, 12.8 million in 2004 and 18.7 million in 2005! The new filing, in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., argues that the Patent & Trademark Office decision that the Miami-based Guantanamera Cigar Co.’s products are “geographically deceptive” in that smokers would expect a cigar with this name to come from Cuba, specifically the Guantanamo area to which the song refers (a “guantanamera” is a girl from Guantanamo). The Miami cigar maker contends that the brand name refers to the song and that American consumers are unaware of the geographical reference to the now-famous Guantanamo region in southeastern Cuba. The legal process for this case will continue to drag on for some time. There may be a trial and possibly one or more appeals. Just wondering: will the legal fees associated during the life of this case exceed the total sales revenue . . . of both brands? ~ Rich Perelman CLASSIFIED ADVERTISINGCigar Humidors and Cigar Accessories at Humidor Vault! Your online cigar humidor source, with rock-bottom pricing and fantastic customer support!Like sports? Get news and commentary you won’t see in your morning newspaper at TheSportsExaminer.com! Join the examination! A limited amount of classified advertising is available in this space on a weekly basis. For details, call Pat Harris at (213) 365-7965 or inquire by email by clicking here. Have an opinion? You can send it using the “Comment” button below! Don’t forget to register for our drawing for free cigars and accessories! Just click on the “Register & Win” button above; enter today! Looking for a cigar party? Take a look at our exclusive list of hundreds of cigar events across the country, listed by state and date, only on CigarCyclopedia.com!
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Did you know?
“"Belinda" which means "very pretty" in Spanish, is made in Honduras (hand-made) and Cuba (machine-made).
