The legal stalemate stretches back to 2005, when Cubaexport first attempted to renew a trademark it had held since 1976. The application stalled for a decade because the company lacked the specific Treasury Department license required to process the fee under U.S. sanctions. The situation shifted in 2015 when the Office of Foreign Assets Control granted the necessary authorization, prompting the USPTO to accept the original filing as retroactively complete.
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Appeals Court Backs Cubaexport in Havana Club Trademark Dispute
A federal appeals court has delivered a decisive blow to Bacardi Ltd.’s long-standing campaign to seize the Havana Club trademark. The Fourth Circuit panel ruled that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office acted within its authority when it permitted the Cuban state-owned entity, Cubaexport, to renew the registration.
Bacardi challenged the decision in court, contending that the patent office lacked the legal standing to revive a registration that had effectively lapsed. The three-judge panel dismissed these arguments on Tuesday, characterizing the USPTO director’s justification as brief but legally sound. By validating the OFAC license as the key to clearing previous regulatory hurdles, the court affirmed that the 2005 renewal was both timely and effective. Neither the USPTO nor representatives for Cubaexport offered immediate comment on the ruling, and Bacardi has yet to signal its next move in the decades-old brand war.
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