Several days ago, Halfwheel reported that Bespoke Cigars would be rebranding to Casdagli in the U.S. market.  

Why?  Because Alec Bradley Cigars filed to trademark bespoke on 25 May 2014 and it was officially registered on 9 May 2017.  This gives them exclusive rights to use the word bespoke on cigar boxes, cutters, tubes, cigars, and tobacco.

In their press release, Bespoke clarified that this agreement was struck during IPCPR between Alan Rubin of Alec Bradley and Jeremy Casdagli of Bespoke to prevent “confusion in the market place and costly legal fees.”

Thankfully, Jeremy and Vlada agreed to answer some questions for us to pass on to our well-informed aficionados.

What does this mean for Bespoke fans across the US? 

Jeremy: There will essentially be no change as the cigars stay the same. They will carry the Bespoke brand name until around Christmas time when the only change that will be apparent will be the words under our colossus of Rhodes logo changing from “Bespoke Cigars” to “Casdagli “ (pronounced: cas-dag-lee)

Vlada: Like Jeremy said, the most important thing for the consumer is the following: Nothing changes when it comes to the cigars; they remain the same cigars people have grown to love and appreciate. Our mission stays the same: we will still be striving to consistently deliver the best possible cigar we can produce from the two factories we work with.

The word "bespoke" will simply be replaced by Jeremy's last name "Casdagli" (cas-dag-lee) wherever we had it before. The overall visual brand identity stays the same, the beautiful piano finished boxes with the butterfly clasps on the back remain as well.

We will be coming out with an improved packaging for our Daughters of the Wind line that should be landing in the States about a week before Labor day, so expect some fun stuff to come and maybe even some prizes through Small Batch!

How do you feel about a word such as Bespoke being trademarked, when it's a term often used in the industry?  

Jeremy: I feel upset by this. We approached the USPTO (Patent office) in 2014 in regards to the possibility of trade marking the word Bespoke. It was made very clear to us by the USPTO in a 30+ page document (which we still possess) that this is not possible. In essence, it stated that the word Bespoke is both a generic and descriptive name that could not be trademarked, as it essentially means "custom made" or "made to order". This made sense to me. 

So you can image my surprise and anger when we were hit by this about 2-3 weeks before IPCPR.

Vlada: I was angry because we were told this couldn't be done and the reasons why it couldn't be done made sense. We went with both the USPTO's and the lawyer's advice at the time and did not pursue trying to trademark it. Jeremy's been using this name for over 2 decades now, but proving it in front of a judge and getting to the actual trial verdict would put the legal costs in 6 figure territory, that's not counting the possible appeals which could easily triple those costs. We're tiny, with about 100,000 cigars produced a year aiming to satisfy and delight aficionados on 3 continents and 2 dozen countries... We couldn't fight a costly legal war. Because at the end of the day, war doesn't determine who's right, only who's left.

And I do want to point out that Alec Bradley isn't doing anything nefarious or bad - I've seen some negative comments online and while I do appreciate the vocal support, they are simply enforcing their legal right to a trademark and I can't fault them for that.

Does the name change bother me? Absolutely, but if the roles we're reversed, I would want this to go in my favor too without involving (more) lawyers.

Is it the easiest thing to do? Of course not, costs of rebranding aside and given the circumstances, it was the RIGHT thing to do for us and the everyone in the chain, both on the retail and consumer side: between spending 6 figures on lawyers over a long period of time or investing that into cigars, the choice was simple - take care of everyone on both sides by delivering excellent cigars, consistently, no matter what the name on the box says.

Is there anything else you'd like to add? 

Jeremy: I just want to add that in essence our brand does not change ... the cigars and quality stay the same. This is the important thing for the consumers to know.

Vlada: The new name is pronounced "cas-dag-lee", also I guess that initial run of very intricate Xikar cutters we did can now be considered a "legacy" item. :)

Many thanks to Jeremy and Vlada for speaking with us about this issue!  If you still have unanswered questions, please comment below and we’ll see if they are able to respond.

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