Bacardi’s Procedural ‘Havana Club’ Appeal Hits Dubious Panel (1)

One procedural prong of Bacardi & Co.'s multifaceted, decades-long bid to register a “Havana Club” rum trademark faced a skeptical appeals court panel Tuesday.

The spirits company argued the US Patent and Trademark Office abused its discretion by accepting a Cuba-owned company’s renewal payment in 2016 after initially refusing it a decade earlier. But Fourth Circuit judges pushed back on the notion that the statutory clock on making the payment expired while an appeal to the PTO director challenging the refusal was ongoing.

“The issue in this case is the registration renewal, right? OK, so the registration is appealed,” Circuit ...