Nairobi — Mastermind Tobacco (Uganda) Limited, a cigarette manufacturing firm with a Kenyan ownership, has been barred from producing its flagship Supermatch brand in Uganda.

The commercial court of Uganda last week stopped the firm from producing Supermatch cigarettes until a case on trademark infringement is concluded. The order was obtained by Burundi Tobacco Company (BTC), the registered proprietors of the Supermatch trademark.

Reports from Uganda's leading newspaper, The Monitor, indicate that Justice Stella Arach-Amoko granted an interim order to BTC restraining the cigarette firm from selling or exposing for sale or dealing in any way in cigarettes under the Supermatch trademark. According to the report, BTC discounted Mastermind's use of the trademark in July this year on grounds that the latter was producing substandard cigarettes which did not satisfy BTC's quality requirements. BTC also accused Mastermind of involving Supermatch in "tax evasion schemes", making it an inferior product.

BTC is also seeking orders to have all Supermatch cigarettes produced after the trademark was withdrawn destroyed. BTC also wants the court to order Mastermind to make an account of all the profits they made by selling Supermatch cigarettes after the trade mark was withdrawn.

However, Mastermind insist that they are still the registered users of the Supermatch trademark in Uganda.