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CUBA: U.S. PATENT OFFICE CONFIRMS CUBAN-FRENCH FIRM'S RIGHTS TO HAVANA CLUB TRADEMARK.

Article Excerpt
On Jan. 29, the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB) of the US Patent and Trademark Office ruled in favor of a Cuban-French firm that sells rum in some 80 countries under the Havana Club trademark. The ruling undermines special-interest legislation favoring Bacardi-Martini Inc., which claims the Havana Club label as its own.

Havana Club Holdings is a joint venture between Cuban state-owned Havana Rum and Liquors and the French firm Pernod Ricard. The original producer of Havana Club rum, Jose Arechabala, left Cuba after President Fidel Castro came to power. The Arechabala family never revived its business and abandoned the trademark in the US and other countries.

The Bacardi company, expropriated in Cuba in 1960, moved its distillery operations to Puerto Rico under the name Bacardi Ltd., and its headquarters to the tax haven of Bermuda. In North America, it operates through Miami-based Bacardi-Martini.

Bacardi paid the Arechabala family a reported US$1.5 million for rights to the trademark and began selling rum under the Havana Club label in the mid-1990s, though it suspended sales when Pernod Ricard took legal steps to block use of the trademark.

In effect, the TTAB ruling said the attempt to void Havana Club Holdings' registration of the trademark had no legal merit because the Cuban state-owned Cubaexport had duly registered it in Cuba...

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