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.