Bacardi Sues PTO for Reviving ‘Stolen’ Havana Club Rum Mark (1)

Bacardi U.S.A. Inc. sued the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for allowing the revival of a registration for a “Havana Club” rum trademark that Bacardi says was “stolen” by the Cuban government in 1960.

The U.S. had no legal or moral basis for allowing Cuban government agency Empresa Cubana Exportadora de Alimentos y Productos Varios, which goes by Cubaexport, to renew the mark in 2016, the complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia said.

Bacardi said the U.S. wrongly let Cubaexport pay a required fee in 2016 to revive a registration for a mark Cubaexport ...