Tobacco Giant Philip Morris must Disgorge Profits from Marlboro Trademark Infringement

Source from:  Financial Post 03/26/2015

Philip Morris, including its Canadian subsidiary Rothmans, Benson & Hedges, must account for the profits it earned by infringing Imperial Tobacco's Marlboro trademark in Canada.

"This important decision for the parties will also likely become a significant precedent for Canadian litigants as this was the first opportunity in decades for the Federal Court to conduct an in-depth assessment of the issue of entitlement to profits in the trademark context," writes Jean-Sébastien Dupont in Smart & Biggar's IP Update. Dupont and his colleague Francois Guay represent Imperial Tobacco.

In June 2012, the Federal Court of Appeal found that Philip Morris had infringed the Marlboro trademark by selling a no-name cigarette product that copied package and design elements of the international brand. Enditem