Welcome to our blog for Intellectual Property Law and Practice in Latin America!
¡Bienvenidos a nuestro blog de Derecho y Práctica de la Propiedad Intelectual en Latinoamérica!
Bem-vindo ao nosso blog sobre Direito e Prática de Propriedade Intelectual na América Latina!

Tuesday 20 March 2012

Patricia Covarrubia

The number 13= bad luck or good luck?

    No comments:

Last Tuesday, 13th of March a street of São Paulo, Brazil experienced bad luck for one business man, Mr Jose Maria da Silva. The person in question was arrested by the agents of the Criminal Investigation Department (DEIC). The good news about the bad news for Mr da Silva is that his arrest was for falsification of cigars. [good news for trade mark owners, right?].

The cigars were labelled with well known Cuban trade marks such as Cohiba and Monte Cristo as well as other mark that were sold over the phone. The agents seized labels, boxes and 1,500 cigars (most were Hondurans). The specialist in charge of corroborating the goods noted that the cigars were of low quality and the labels and boxes and in general all the packaging was similar to the originals. At the end, the news mentions that Mr da Silva has been charge with tax fraud [uh? surely, while bringing an action for infringement of trade mark should be an action brought by the trade mark owners, is there any criminal matter in here?]

Patricia Covarrubia

Patricia Covarrubia