I copied-and-pasted from another forum.

Altadis USA has officially filed a lawsuit over the use of the Fleur De Lys on Tatuaje Cigars. They have filed suit in the Florida Southern District Court. The lawsuit names Tatuaje Cigars, Pete Johnson, My Father Cigars and Jose Pepin Garcia as the defendants. The docket can be found here: http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cou...ase_id-345807/.
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Altadis is so ****ing lame.
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What Altadis cigar uses the Fleur de lys? I'm assuming there is one.
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Montecristo.
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I think im boycotting buying any Altadis Cigars...not that I've bought any before but this gives me another reason not to
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I hate Altadis. I hope their company fails.
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This is why we need tort reform and loser-pays in the US.
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Typically the loser does pay court costs.
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The Tat's needed a new band anyway.
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Ah... forgot about that one. I can definitely see where Altadis is coming from here. Pete has himself one of the fastest growing companies in the industry and Altadis isn't very well thought of in the industry. The Fleurs do look different though.

I definitely think the lawsuit is dumb here, but who can really blame them. Most of us who smoke Tatuaje don't smoke Altadis products much if at all. Can you really claim trade mark infringement on something as old and iconic as the Fleur De Lys? I guess if Fuente can claim they own the letter X, then what is the difference?
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Guys, this is old news...Pete told a few of us at one of his stops that this has been resolved...Basically, he gets to keep using the symbol on Tat cigars, but cannot use it for any of his other brands (La Riqueza, El Triunfador etc)...

I am not sure why the date of the filing is yesterday, if what he said is true...Just repeating what he told us...

Hope that helps!

~brooks
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I was looking mroe into this and ran across a lawsuit filed by Tatuaje against Altadis in August of this year. https://www.rfcexpress.com/lawsuit.asp?id=49868

So is this some kind of feud between them?
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Didn't they have a years long dispute with Opus One wines in the past?
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When did he tell you guys? I'm jut wondering as it looks like this was filed 2 days ago...
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He told us this on Thursday...so I suppose it is possible he THOUGHT everything was fine...

**Shrug** like I said, I am just repeating what he told us, nothing more...

~brooks
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Apparently there was/is a countersuit

http://cigarlaw.wordpress.com/2009/1...aje-v-altadis/
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Look up what "court costs" means.

All of Tatuaje's legal fees for their defense of this suit is out of pocket and is not covered under "court costs".

Only time you generally see legal fees covered is if an agreement to settle is reached that incorporates legal fees as part of it or in cases of contracts where the contract stipulates the person filing suit to enforce it is entitled to fees. In those cases, many states say that then applies to both parties so either that prevails will get legal fees.

Not an attorney but did stay at a Holiday Inn.
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I have been boycotting Altadis products for years.

Not because of the feud or the suit, though...just 'cause they suck.
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True.
I think they will be suing the New Orleans Saints next.
They clearly copied from Altadis.
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Hopefully they don't sue the guards at the Wicked Witch of the West's castle! :-)
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