• Submitted by: lena campos
• Business and Economy
• 05 / 18 / 2012

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The Cuban Ministry for Foreign Affairs urged the US government to allow Cuban company Cubaexport to renew its registration of the world-known trademark Havana Club, according to a communiqué published by Granma newspaper. 

The official statement announces that on May 14, 2012, the US Supreme Court denied Cubaexport the possibility to defend its right to renew the registration of the trademark at the US Patent and Trademarks, where it has been registered from 1976 to 2006.

The decision was made following the US Office for Foreign Assets Control’s refusal to grant the Cuban company a license to renovate the trademark under the protection of Section 211 of the Omnibus Appropriations Act, which forbids the renovation of the registration of trademarks connected
to former property nationalized by the Cuban government.

Section 211, passed in 1998, was the result of the pressure exerted by Miami-based anti-Cuba groups with the help of members of the US Congress, in return to compensation received from the Bacardi company, "the real promoter of those actions against Cubaexport, to misappropriate the brands and markets of the Cuban rum," reads the statement.

The Foreign Ministry recalled that since 1995, Cubaexport, together with the French company Pernod Ricard, distributor of Havana Club rum, has defended its right to register the world-known brand.

During the process that now has come to an end, OFAC claimed that it could not issue the license demanded by Section 211 at the order of the Department of State which had stated that granting such permission was not in compliance with the U.S. policy on Cuba.

MINREX claimed that if the US government doesn’t respond to its , it will have sole responsibility for the expropriation of Havana Club from its legitimate holder, Cubaexport, and for the negative consequences it may entail in the mutual protection of Industrial Property.

The communiqué explains that Cuba’s invariable respect for international legal instruments concerning Industrial Property has allowed more than 5,000 US brands and patents to benefit from its registration in the island.(ACN)

Source: Radio Cadena Agramonte.cu