Boycott Fuente/Newman - message I recieved

[kevin7]

I got this email from an admin there,I am a member there too. I am not posting this to stir shit about bad blood from another board so don't godamn start any motherfucking godamn shit with me or I will rip your pus filled head off of your pencil neck and dry fuck your dead skull

I dont give a shit either way and Fuente makes some good cigars and they make
some fucking absolute unsmokeable dog rockets too. I know about the way they treat retailers from firsthand knowledge and they are scumbags. I don't fucking care how much godamn money they raise for the boo hoo hoo motherfucking poor in the DR. fUente has fucked over Eddie Ortega and his line of awesome Oliva made cigars because that black shoepolish hairdye wearing piece of shit carlito fuente thinks he invented the letter X. I would laugh my fat ass off if there came a day again like years ago when nobody gave 2 shits about fuente and their cigars,there was a time when you couldnt hardly give away fuente crap. I 'd like to see that day again real soon

Dear HCF Member:

Some weeks ago I received a letter from a law firm representing Fuente & Newman Premium Cigars Limited, Incorporated, the makers of A. Fuente, Opus X, Diamond Crown and other non-Cuban cigars. The letter advised that Fuente/Newman holds the registered trademark for "Cigar Family" and that it considered our use of those words in habanocigarfamily.com and as the name of this forum to be an infringement of that trademark.

I immediately telephoned Fuente/Newman's lawyer and advised that (a) we are not a commercial enterprise; (b) we did not adopt our name to "trade" on the name or good will of "Cigar Family"; (c) we have respect for Fuente/Newman and its own commercial forum; and (d) we would gladly publish conspicuously a disclaimer of any affiliation whatsoever with Fuente/Newman etc. and (e) despite the fact that I am convinced that we are not infringing on Fuente/Newmans trademark, I would rather switch than fight.

Subquently I took a phone call from a couple of Fuente/Newman executives who informed me that they think the whole thing is a bit silly but we needed to work out a solution. Their suggestion was that we change the name of our domain and forum, which I reiterated a willingness to do if there were no alternative. However, I pointed out that the core group of members here has moved from CigarWise to CigarSyndicate back to CigarWise and now to HCF and I would prefer a solution that didn't require another name and domain change. I proposed that Fuente/Newman sell us a limited license to use "Cigar Family" as part of our name and to publish prominently a disclaimer of any other relationship to Fuente/Newman, cigarfamily.com, Cigar Family Charitable Foundation or any other Fuente/Newman entity or program.

A couple of days ago I took another call from the Fuente/Newman executives who advised me that their lawyers would not agree to let them sell us a license, and the lawyers confirmed to me yesterday that Carlito Fuente and Fuente/Newman have instructed them to sue me for trademark infringement if we do not change our name.

Accordingly, effective the SUNDAY, October 1, we are changing our name to Habano Cigar Forum and our domain to www.habanocigarforum.com. This will not affect any of the existing posts or other data in the database. As of SUNDAY you should come here via the www.habanocigarforum.com domain and delete your cookies and change your bookmarks/favorites accordingly. You should not have to re-register and your username and password will not change

I regret the inconvenience that may result from this change and that Fuente/Newman would rather risk alienating our members than to win the good will that would have resulted from an alternative arrangement that would fully have protected their legal rights.

Best,

*****

[bigpoppapuff]

as i stated earlier...the fuentes and some of the fuente lemmings are the ones that think that carlito's shit doesn't stink....i assure you...guillermo leon and his family mean much more to the D.R. than the fuente's do......carlito can take his curly-heads and shove him up his ass....

the fact that he thinks he owns the letter "x" is laughable...as is the way he treats his retailers.....

[ggiese]

as i stated earlier...the fuentes and some of the fuente lemmings are the ones that think that carlito's shit doesn't stink....i assure you...guillermo leon and his family mean much more to the D.R. than the fuente's do......carlito can take his curly-heads and shove him up his ass....

the fact that he thinks he owns the letter "x" is laughable...as is the way he treats his retailers.....

What Kevin and Sid say are absolutely true. I cannot disagree with them at all. The Fuente's are very selective in how they send items to their retailers. It's somewhat about those that generate business for them, but even more about how enthusiastic a Fuente representative. The who "X" issue was laughable... I always thought these cigar families worked cooperatively - and then you have the Fuente family... Kind of an enigma...

However, those HCF POS's that are calling for a boycot have alot of nerve - given the way they treat "non-family" members. Further - if you do not agree with them you will find yourself on the outside looking in - and they will do everything possible to make life miserable. Such as flooding advertisers with nonsense e-mails about not patronizing them because they choose to post on a board owned/operated and/or populated by people they don't deem worthy...

I just find it amazingly ironic that the HCF crew is getting a good taste of their own medicine - and they're finding it awfully bitter. Maybe they should take heed to the message...

Also - if I were the Fuente Family and was concerned about the "Cigar Family" name - I would go after a board like the HCF. C'mon - their brand of nonsense can be damaging to the reputation of something like "Cigar Family" at Fuente - if someone were to draw a possible association between the two. While most insiders know there is no connection, someone new to the cigar board world may not see the distinction and believe they are somehow related...

But, who am I - I'm just a "Cigar Snot" and "Cigar Snots" are not welcome at HCF ...

Paintball - you really have to be careful about how you post. It looked very much like YOU were calling for the boycott. While you may think you are doing the overall community a service by posting that message, you're not realizing you are stepping on some toes... If you know what you're doing - that's great. If you don't, that could be very bad...