Bacardi calls on US to reverse Havana Club ruling

Bacardi has sent an official request to the US government to reverse its decision to hand the Havana Club rum trademark to the Cuban government.

Bacardi have been selling Havana Club in the US since 1994, while the brand name has been sold elsewhere by Pernod Ricard (Photo: Wiki)

The news comes after the drinks business reported how Bacardi had filed a Freedom of Information request to expose the rationale behind a decision to hand the trademark to the Cuban government, which gave Pernod Ricard the right to sell the brand in the US.

In 1994 Bacardi purchased the rights to sell Havana Club in the US from the brand’s founding family, who had fled Cuba in the 1960s after their assets were seized by their country’s government.

French drinks group Pernod Ricard sells the Cuba-made Havana Club outside of the US but has been unable to launch it in the US due to a trade embargo between US and Cuba, which has been in place since 1961 when the Cuban revolution led to communism.

Sources claim that the ruling in favour of Cuban government ownership of the Havana Club trademark could cost Bacardi around 4,000,000 case sales per year.

Following the trademark ruling, Bacardi accused the US government of turning its back on its own laws to grant ownership to Cuba. Now the company has intensified the pressure on the US, insisting that the country’s Office of Foreign Asset Control had acted in violation of “well-settled US law”.

A statement released by Bacardi today said: “As part of continued efforts to defend the legitimacy of its rights and ownership of Havana Club rum, Bacardi has requested the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) to reverse its decision to grant the Cuba government a licence to renew and maintain the Havana Club trademark registration in the United States.”

In its submission to OFAC, Bacardi insisted that it was the lawful owner of all rights and claims related to the Havana Club trademark in the US.

The trademark was used in conjunction with the Havana Club rum business by the original owner, Jose Arechabala SA, who founded the company in 1878 in Cuba, Bacardi said. 

Jose Arechabala sold Havana Club rum in the US after the brand was created in 1934. The business was confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960.

Bacardi insists that it obtained its ownership interest in the Havana Club trademark through “a lawful and OFAC-licensed transaction” with Jose Arechabala.

Bacardi has been selling Havana Club rum in the US since the mid-1990s.

“OFAC’s decision to grant the licence to the Cuban government reverses it prior decision in 2006 to deny that very same licence and contradicts its own defence of that decision in various US courts,” Eduardo Sánchez, senior vice president and general counsel of Bacardi, said.

“OFAC has acted in violation of well-settled US law and Congressional intent in a covert action that is unjustified in law. We request that OFAC revoke License 837-1 retroactively to prevent Cuba – and its business partner Pernod Ricard – from their continued trafficking in illegally confiscated property.”

Bacardi said it would continue to pursue all the necessary legal and other actions regarding “its rights and ownership” of Havana Club rum.