Gurkha v. Davidoff Year of the Dragon Lawsuit Scheduled for September 2025

Gurkha’s trademark lawsuit over Davidoff’s use of “Year of the Dragon” has been scheduled for next fall.

Judge William P. Dimitrouleas of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida has scheduled a two-week jury trial to begin on Sept. 15, 2025 at the U.S. Courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. While there are a number of ways that the trial doesn’t begin on that date—the parties could settle, typical legal delays could happen or the sides could reject the option to use a magistrate judge—the scheduling shows the legal matter is continuing to move towards a trial.

The lawsuit, filed by Gurkha late last year, centers around the Davidoff Limited Edition 2024 Year of the Dragon cigar. Gurkha Cigar Group, Inc.—the plaintiff—licenses various trademarks from K. Hansotia & Co., Inc. Those include trademarks such as dragon, dragon fire, dragon lord, dragonslayer, imperial dragon, red dragon, and royal dragon. In addition, K. Hansotia & Co., Inc. filed for a trademark of “Year of Dragon” for cigars in November 2022. Gurkha claims that by releasing the Davidoff Limited Edition 2024 Year of the Dragon cigar last year, Davidoff has committed a trademark violation.

This is the second of two legal battles over dragon-related trademarks the two sides are fighting. Davidoff y Cie SA has opposed K. Hansotia & Co., Inc.’s “Year of Dragon” filing at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). A decision on that legal matter has not been made. Last month, Dimitrouleas dismissed Gurkha’s request for declaratory relief on Count IV of the complaint due to the pending USPTO matter.

Asylum, De Los Reyes, Drew Estate, El Septimo, General Cigar Co., Habanos S.A., J.C. Newman, JM Tobacco, La Galera, Oliva, Maya Selva, Plasencia, Rocky Patel, United Cigars and Vega Fina have also introduced Year of the Dragon-themed cigars. So far, only Davidoff has been sued by Gurkha.

Charlie Minato

I am an editor and co-founder of halfwheel.com/Rueda Media, LLC. I previously co-founded and published TheCigarFeed, one of the two predecessors of halfwheel. I have written about the cigar industry for more than a decade, covering everything from product launches to regulation to M&A. In addition, I handle a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff here at halfwheel. I enjoy playing tennis, watching boxing, falling asleep to the Le Mans 24, wearing sweatshirts year-round and eating gyros. echte liebe.