Re: Now there are TWO Havana Clubs!!!

[Steve_YYZ]

From today's Miami Herald. In a United States ruling at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, it has been decided to let the Bacardi empire use the Havana Club name and label within the United States. This Bacardi "Havana Club" will be made in Puerto Rico and distributed in Florida, billed as a premium product.
 
 Cubaphiles visiting Florida should be aware of this so they know they're not buying the real Cuban Havana Club.
 
 Link to Original Story
 
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 Bacardi to re-launch Havana Club rum label
 
 After a long legal battle, fans will get another taste of Havana Club rum. Bacardi is relaunching the product this week.
 
 BY ELAINE WALKER
 Miami Herald
 Tue, Aug. 08, 2006
 
 Havana Club, the rum that evokes memories of toasts at glittery hot spots in pre-Castro Cuba, is coming this week to Florida bars, liquor stores and hotels.
 
 Coming on the heels of a favorable ruling in a decade-long legal battle with French liquor giant Pernod Ricard and the Cuban government, Miami-based Bacardi U.S.A. is relaunching the Havana Club brand as a super-premium rum selling for $19.99 a bottle.
 
 Thursday, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office deemed the Havana Club trademark held by Cubaexport ``cancelled/expired.''
 
 Bringing Havana Club back to the United States is particularly gratifying for Ramon Arechabala. His family created the rum in 1935, and exported it to the United States and other countries until Jan. 1, 1960, when Fidel Castro's government seized the family's plant and trademark.
 
 Arechabala, former sales manager of the family company, said Monday he vividly remembers the day the bodyguard of Cuban revolutionary Ernesto ''Che'' Guevara placed a gun to his head and took over the Havana Club distillery in Cardenas.
 
 In recent years, Havana Club has been marketed by a joint venture involving Cubaexport, a Cuban government company, and Pernod Ricard. Because of the embargo on Cuba, it was not available in the United States.
 
 `NOT DRINKABLE'
 
 Although that Havana Club is popular in both Cuba and Europe, Arechabala declared it ``not drinkable.''
 
 ''Fidel lacks the formula of the right Havana Club,'' said Arechabala, 70, who has lived in Miami for 38 years. ``That's the only thing Fidel couldn't take from me.''
 
 In the mid 1990s, Bacardi cut a deal with the Arechabalas for the rights to the family's recipe and the name Havana Club. The brand was introduced in the United States, but pulled from the shelves when the rum war ignited.
 
 At least for now, however, here will be two versions of Havana Club for sale, one from Bacardi and the other from the Cuban/French joint venture.
 
 Bacardi's new Havana Club will be bottled at the company's rum facilities in Puerto Rico. For now it will be available only in Florida because of limited supply.
 
 LIMITED SUPPLY
 
 But Bacardi executives said Monday that based on response, it will likely be rolled out to other key U.S. markets.
 
 The timing of the Havana Club launch has nothing to do with any recent Cuba interest sparked by Castro's health issues, company executives said. And the U.S. Patent Office ruling was just coincidental with their plans to introduce the brand, they said.
 
 Instead, executive said, it's all about capitalizing on strong consumer demand for super-premium liquor brands and the return of classic cocktails such as the daiquiri and mojito. The rum category, where Bacardi is already the top-selling brand in the world, has also been growing.
 
 ''We've been planning this for many years,'' said John Gomez, vice president and group marketing director for Bacardi U.S.A. ``We always owned the brand. There was no issue in our minds. It was only a question of when it was commercially appropriate for the relaunch.''
 
 Cubaexport has claimed it obtained the rights to the Havana Club name in 1976 after José Arechabala S.A. allowed the trademark to lapse with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
 
 Cubaexport registered the trademark in 1976, but no compensation was ever provided to the Arechabala family.
 
 U.S. courts have consistently ruled that Havana Club Holdings, the name of the French/Cuban joint venture, has no right to the trademark in the United States.
 
 But the issue of who held the trademark remained unresolved until last week's decision.
 
 Executives from Pernod Ricard were unavailable late Monday afternoon.
 
 Unlike most countries, the United States typically gives priority to the first entity to utilize a brand, not the first to register it, said Miami attorney Jim Gale, whose firm Feldman Gale specializes in trademark and patent law.
 
 But a trademark in one country has no impact on operations in another country, Gale said.
 
 BUILDING NEW BUZZ
 
 Bacardi plans to market Havana Club as a super-premium brand, along the lines of Grey Goose vodka, which the company also owns.
 
 It will introduce the brand with trendsetters in South Florida and hopes the buzz will spread.
 
 The product will start appearing locally this week.
 
 Most other premium rums made by Bacardi or other companies are dark rums meant to be sipped, but Havana Club is a clear liquid that mixes well in cocktails.

[Steve_YYZ]

Here's another very interesting take on the Bacardi / Havana Club situation.
 It would seem that for Cuba to keep their trademark valid they needed to renew their trademark with the US Patent and Trademark Office. However to renew the trademark, they also needed a specific license from the US Department of Foreign Assets Control in order to make the renewal application. The OFAC is the US Gov't department in charge of enforcing the Cuban Embargo by the United States.
 
 So the situation seems to have been that OFAC denies the license to renew the Trademark, thus allowing the Patent and Trademark Office to rule that Cuba's trademark has expired. This then allowed Bacardi to, IMHO, steal Cuba's Havana Club Trademark, by using the US court system.
 
 If you think this sounds fishy, well it sure stinks in my opinion.
 
 Here's the full story from Reuters via CNN.Money.
 
 Steve
 
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 Bacardi's Havana Club rum to return
 
 Relaunch comes following company's 10-year legal battle with Cuban government and French firm.
 
 August 8 2006: 7:27 AM EDT
 
 NEW YORK (Reuters) -- Drinks company Bacardi said Tuesday it is relaunching the Havana Club rum brand in the United States after winning a 10-year legal battle with the Cuban government and France's Pernod Ricard.
 
 U.S. patent authorities last week declared Cuba's registration of the trademark had expired.
 
 Bacardi's Havana Club is based on the original recipe by the Arechabala family, who created it in 1935 and exported it to the United States and other countries, Bacardi said in a statement Tuesday.
 
 In 1960 Jose Arechabala S.A. and all of its assets were seized by the Cuban government, Bacardi said. Privately owned Bacardi purchased the brand from the Arechabalas in the 1990s.
 
 Meanwhile, a joint venture of a Cuban government company and Pernod Ricard has been marketing Havana Club-branded rum in countries outside the United States.
 
 In a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court, U.S. courts ruled that the Cuban-French joint venture had no rights to the trademark in the United States, the Bacardi statement said.
 
 A decision from the Patent and Trademark Office dated Aug. 3 came after the Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control denied a Cuban government agency a specific license, which was necessary to seek renewal of the trademark registration.

[flopnfly]

Havana Club was made (invented in Cuba) by an American, but the Cuban government acquired the rights to it, and now the Americans have "acquired" it back.
 
 Do I have it right?
 
 It really doesn't matter who labels it or owns the rights, it's Havana Club, and unless I'm mistaken Havana is and always will be Cuban.    :D

[Steve_YYZ]

Here's what the US Puerto Rico "Havana Club" will look like. It will only be a 3-year-old.
 
 

[flopnfly]

Nice bottle    :D