U.S. President Joe Biden has enacted a law banning the recognition of trademarks confiscated by the Cuban government, cementing Bacardi’s rights to the “Havana Club” rum brand in the United States following a long-running legal dispute.
Biden signed the bill, opens new tab on Sunday, the White House said in a Monday press release, blocking U.S. courts and agencies from “enforcing or validating” trademarks that the Cuban government seized following the Cuban Revolution.
Cuba, a long-time foe of the United States, quickly lashed out against the law’s passage.
“The [legislation] signed by Biden modifies the law in an aggression against Cuba, in order to open the door, in violation of international law, for the theft of Cuban brands legitimately registered in that country,” Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said Monday on X.
Bacardi sells Havana Club-branded rum in the United States. Cuba’s state-owned Cubaexport sells its own Havana Club rum outside the United States with French liquor maker Pernod Ricard (PERP.PA), opens new tab as its distributor.
The new law, titled the “No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act,” does not explicitly refer to Bacardi or Pernod Ricard, both of which had lobbied Congress over the bill, federal records show. A Congressional committee report, opens new tab said the law was meant to resolve the Havana Club controversy and “prevent anyone from using U.S. agencies to benefit from intellectual property stolen from its rightful owner.”
Spokespeople for Bacardi and Pernod Ricard did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.
Bacardi, which was exiled from Cuba after the country’s Communist revolution, said that the Cuban government unlawfully seized the Havana Club name and assets from Jose Arechabala SA in 1960. Bacardi bought Jose Arechabala’s brand and started selling Havana Club rum in the United States in 1995.
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