Egypt’s No. 1 brand of cigarette, Cleopatra, was born in 1961 when Egyptian ruler Gamal Abdel Nasser asked for a local version of the smuggled American Kent brand he liked to smoke.

Created by the century-old Eastern Company S.A.E., Cleopatra is now one of the most widely smoked cigarettes in North Africa and one of the top sellers globally.

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But Stanford Law Professor Mark Lemley, an expert in intellectual property, said that made little difference if the cigarettes were due to be sold in North Africa, where Eastern Company, for example, has registered trademarks in Libya and Egypt.

“Because trademark rights are territorial, the normal rule is that the first person to register and use the mark in a particular country gets the rights in that country,” he said. “So while Cleopatra marks can coexist in different countries, a registration in Montenegro would not give the registrant the rights to sell anywhere except Montenegro.”

“If Eastern owns the rights in Libya, importing the cigarettes from Montenegro would be infringement.”

Trademark infringements are usually regulated at the point of import, Lemley noted, but given the conflict in Libya the country was unlikely to paying much attention to intellectual property rights. If the Montenegrin government, however, “produced the cigarettes and knew the cigarettes were being exported for illegal use abroad they could be liable for trademark infringement,” he said.

“Because trademark rights are territorial, the normal rule is that the first person to register and use the mark in a particular country gets the rights in that country,” he said. “So while Cleopatra marks can coexist in different countries, a registration in Montenegro would not give the registrant the rights to sell anywhere except Montenegro.”

“If Eastern owns the rights in Libya, importing the cigarettes from Montenegro would be infringement.”