Bacardi wins rum rumble; Cuba's trademark suit tossed

[Mika]

Bacardi wins rum rumble; Cuba's trademark suit tossed
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/976242.html

BY ELAINE WALKER
[e-mail]
The more than decade-long battle between Bacardi and Pernod Ricard over the U.S. rights to the Havana Club trademark on Monday inched closer to an end.

A federal judge dismissed a Cuban lawsuit Monday over the termination of U.S. trademark rights for its Havana Club rum, a victory for Bacardi's effort to take over the brand name as its own in the United States.

Cubaexport, Cuba's state-owned export enterprise, filed the lawsuit appealing a decision in August 2006 by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that deemed the current registration on Havana Club trademark ''canceled/expired.'' Cubaexport has a joint venture with Pernod Ricard to sell Havana Club internationally.

Bacardi hailed Monday's decision as another in a long string of rulings it has won from U.S. government agencies and courts.

''This is a very significant ruling and a watershed moment in a more than 10-year dispute,'' Bacardi spokeswoman Patricia Neal said. ``It reinforces that once again the Cuban government has no rights to the Havana Club trademark in the U.S.''

Mark Orr, vice president of North American affairs for Pernod Ricard, referred requests for comment to its attorneys, who did not return calls.

The dispute is entangled in property seizures during the Cuban revolution, the trade embargo with the island nation and U.S. trademark law. Cuba's Havana Club is not sold in the United States because of the trade embargo, but the company got a U.S. trademark for the name in 1976 for future opportunities in case the embargo is lifted.

''What this decision seems to be is one more nail in the coffin for Pernod Ricard trying to hold onto its use of the Havana Club trademark in the United States,'' Tom Gjelten, author of Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba, told The Associated Press.

Bacardi began selling its own Havana Club in 2006 in Florida and has an application pending to register the trademark in its own name. Bacardi's Havana Club is made in Puerto Rico using the recipe developed by the Arechabala family who created the rum brand in 1935. Fidel Castro's government seized the family's plant and trademark on Jan. 1, 1960.

The family made a deal to sell the recipe and Havana Club brand name to Bacardi in the mid-1990s. Bacardi also sold the product in the United States for a few years shortly after making the deal, but pulled it from shelves after the fight erupted over the rights to the brand.

Information from The Associated Press was used to supplement this report.

[Judi Lynn]

1. The law as been perverted. What a damned shame. Thank you, Mika. n/t