UK tobacco firm contests court ruling

UK tobacco firm contests court ruling

Dow Jones
Jakarta

UK-based Imperial Tobacco Group PLC's Reemtsma unit is appealing
an Indonesian court decision stopping the company from selling
its Davidoff brand cigarettes in the country, a lawyer involved
in the case said Tuesday.


Reemtsma, which is based in Germany, is trying through the
courts to prove that PT Sumatra Tobacco Trading Company, which
claims to own the Davidoff trademark in Indonesia, in fact has no
right to sell the cigarettes under that brand, said Gunawan
Suryomurcito, Reemtsma's lawyer.


The Commercial Court last month ruled against Reemtsma's
petition to cancel Sumatra Tobacco's right to the trademark.
Reemtsma has lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court this week,
Suryomurcito said.


Sumatra Tobacco declined to comment for this article.


Many international brands are produced and sold illegally in
Indonesia, where rules to protect trademarks are frequently
flaunted.


The German company signed an agreement in 2001 with PT Gudang
Garam, Indonesia's largest cigarette manufacturer, to import the
Davidoff brand, with a possibility of later setting up production
facilities locally.


But Reemtsma found that on trying to register the trademark it
was already held by Sumatra Tobacco, a local company.


According to Reemtsma's lawyers, Sumatra Tobacco's claim to
the Davidoff trademark dates to the 1980s when it entered an
agreement with a Brazilian company to buy the brand. Reemtsma
said the Brazilian company had no legal right to sell the
trademark and acted in bad faith in entering an agreement with
Sumatra Tobacco.