Bacardi Loses Appeal In Havana Club Trademark Dispute

A US appeals court has rejected Bacardi’s challenge to the Patent and Trademark Office’s (PTO) regarding the renewal of Cuba’s Havana Club trademark, the latest development in a decades-long legal battle between the drinks giant and the Cuban state-owned company, Cubaexport.

Bacardi’s lawsuit stems from a bureaucratic battle over when the trademark should have expired. Bacardi argued that back in 2005 when the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control refused to issue Cubaexport a license, the "Havana Club" trademark should have officially expired in 2006.

However, the U.S. Treasury later issued a special license that retroactively approved the license. Because it was made valid, the Patent and Trademark Office officially renewed Cuba's trademark in 2016—a decision Bacardi has been fighting ever since.

Official documentation published by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit on Tuesday 16 July 2026 concluded: “The OFAC license cleared the fog, removing the legal obstacle that had prevented the 2005 transfer from counting as payment. What looked incomplete in 2006 was, by 2016, timely and effective. The Director recognised as much, and so did the district court. The judgment is affirmed.”

Bacardi itself said in a statement that it was "disappointed that the court granted the Cuban government a 10-year grace period for renewing a trademark that was stolen in the first place."

“But this decision is just one narrow part of the larger dispute over the true ownership of the Havana Club mark. And this dispute is likely to be resolved soon. Cuba’s next renewal application is due in just 11 days on June 27 2026. But Congress, by enacting The No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act, has now forbidden the PTO from granting Cuba’s renewal application for the stolen trademark. Bacardi is eager to see justice served in this long-running saga.”

The complex legal battle over the Havana Club brand stems from the 1959 Cuban Revolution, when the government nationalized private companies without compensation.

This included José Arechabala S.A., the rum's original producer, whose exiled family eventually sold the brand's commercial rights and recipe to Bacardi in 1994. However, the Cuban state exporter, Cubaexport, had already registered the U.S. trademark in 1976 and successfully renewed it for decades.

To market the rum globally, Cubaexport partnered with Pernod Ricard in 1993, though the lucrative U.S. market remained closed to them due to the ongoing trade embargo.

Today, this historical divide has created a unique dual market. Bacardi continues to sell its own Puerto Rican-made rum under the Havana Club name within the United States. Meanwhile, the Cuban-made original remains banned in the U.S. but dominates the rest of the globe, standing as one of the world's most valuable spirits with sales hitting 3.1 million cases in 2025.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team