Havana Club coming to the US

[Mowee]

Bacardi Is to Bring
Havana Club Rum
Back to the U.S.
By VANESSA O'CONNELL
August 8, 2006; Page A8
Bacardi Ltd., in a move aimed at blocking Cuba from eventually bringing its rum brand to the U.S. market, is expected to announce today that it is relaunching Havana Club brand rum in the U.S.

Bacardi's action comes just days after the U.S. Patent and Trademark office on Aug. 3 notified Cuba, which has controlled the brand since 1959, that its Havana Club trademark "registration will be cancelled/expired." A few days earlier, the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control had denied a Cuban government agency the license needed for U.S. trademark renewal.

These decisions made it difficult for the Cuban government to claim any rights to the trademark in the U.S., giving Bacardi the chance to act.

The battle between Bacardi and Cuba over Havana Club has its roots in Fidel Castro's takeover of Cuba in 1959. The newly installed Castro regime seized control of Cuba's rum industry, including both the Havana Club and Bacardi businesses. Bacardi's owners left Cuba and rebuilt their business using their Puerto Rico plant, but Havana Club's original owners didn't have any alternative factory to continue making the rum -- allowing the Castro regime to retain control.

Until 1993, Cuba made Havana Club rum primarily for domestic consumption and the Soviet bloc, but that year Cuba struck a deal with French liquor concern Pernod-Ricard SA to sell the rum in 80 countries. Since then the rum has become popular around the world -- except in the U.S. where the trade embargo blocked sale of Cuban-owned products.

While Cuba hasn't been able to sell Havana Club in the U.S., it obtained the U.S. trademark in 1974 when the brand's original owners inadvertently let the U.S. trademark lapse. With the help of the powerful anti-Castro lobby, however, Bacardi in 1999 persuaded lawmakers to change trademark law to prevent the U.S. from renewing trademarks for brands whose ownership was confiscated by the Castro regime.

For its part, Bacardi says it owns the rights to the Havana Club brand based on its attempt to launch Havana Club on a very small scale in the U.S. years ago, as well as a deal it says it made with descendants of the brand's original owners. It also has a pending application to register the Havana Club mark in its own name, according to Bacardi USA spokeswoman Pat Neal. She said the closely held company has been planning to relaunch Havana Club for at least three years.