CONGRESS
Bacardi bill returns to D.C.
Bacardi looks once again to Washington for help in its battle with the
Cuban government over the trademark to Havana Club.
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com
WASHINGTON --
Much of Florida's congressional delegation has quietly renewed an effort
to help Miami-based Bacardi in a controversial effort to secure the
rights to the Havana Club trademark, a years-long quest marked by
questions about the company's political clout.
Detractors such as liberal-leaning watchdog group Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington suggest the bill -- which has
twice before been introduced by members of Florida's delegation -- is
payback to the influential company and could hurt the ability of other
U.S. companies to protect their trademarks in Cuba.
''It's a private bill, helps only one company, and it's something that
undermines American trademarks,'' said Melanie Sloan, executive director
of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
But bill supporters say it restores the company's rights to the
trademark rum -- to the detriment of Fidel Castro.
''The question is whether the cause is right, not how much influence a
particular group has,'' said Rep. Tom Feeney, R-Oviedo, who backs the
measure. ``I believe this company has a legitimate right to the name --
it was stolen by Castro.''
FUNDRAISING PROBE
The move to reintroduce the legislation comes just months after a
Washington whistle-blower group asked the Federal Election Commission to
investigate whether the liquor maker illegally used corporate resources
to organize fundraising events for Florida's two senators, Democrat Bill
Nelson and Republican Mel Martinez. The FEC is investigating the matter.
Nelson filed a bill on behalf of the company earlier this month;
Martinez is a co-sponsor. Nine House members from Florida have signed on
to the House bill.
Nelson and Martinez dismissed the complaint and any suggestion linking
contributions to the legislation. Bacardi says it is confident the
complaint to the FEC will be dismissed. It questioned the timing of the
complaint -- a month before the November election.
The bill has been introduced in the House by Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca
Raton, who along with Feeney is a member of the congressional caucus on
intellectual property and piracy prevention.
''There is broad bipartisan support to support the legitimate rights of
trademark holders,'' said Bacardi spokeswoman Patricia Neal.
Bacardi says it bought the rights to the Havana Club name in 1997 from
the rightful owner, the Arechabala family, who had the trademark seized
from them without any compensation when Castro took power. Cubaexport, a
Cuban government company that partners with French liquor giant Pernod
Ricard, sells rum under the Havana Club name in Cuba and around the
world -- but not in the United States because of the trade embargo.
When Bacardi U.S.A. launched Havana Club in Florida last August, the
U.S. subsidiary of Pernod Ricard filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court
in Delaware to keep Bacardi from selling the rum.
Although that suit remains pending, 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. The U.S. Patent and
Trademark Office last August deemed the current registration held by
Cubaexport on the Havana Club trademark as ``canceled/expired.''
`VALID DISPUTE'
''We have a corporate constituent based in Florida, and they have a
dispute with the Cuban government, and the senator feels they have a
valid dispute and feels that it can be addressed legislatively,'' said
spokesman Dan McLaughlin.
The debate dates back nearly a decade: Bacardi scored a major victory in
1998 when former Florida Republican Sen. Connie Mack tweaked a spending
bill to include language essentially granting the company the U.S.
rights to the name by preventing U.S. courts from enforcing trademarks
confiscated by the Cuban government.
But after the French government complained, the World Trade Organization
in 2001 ordered the United States to revise the law.
The company has been lobbying since then for the new legislation, which
it says would effectively grant it the trademark as well as satisfy WTO
rules so that it doesn't apply only to Cuban firms.
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