A federal court in Virginia ruled against Bacardi for the second time in the liquor company’s fight with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) over the Cuban government’s trademark rights to the “Havana Club” rum.
District Judge Leonie Brinkema granted requests by the USPTO and Cubaexport to dismiss Bacardi’s lawsuit against the office’s decision to renew Cubaexport’s “Havana Club” federal trademark, according to a filing summarizing a court hearing held on Friday.
The president of the United States, Joe Biden, also enacted a law in December that prohibits US agencies from recognizing trademarks confiscated by the Cuban government after the country’s communist revolution.
The court filing does not describe Brinkema’s reasoning for his decision.
Bacardi said in a statement that it would appeal and that Brinkema had deferred “entirely to the discretion of the USPTO even though the USPTO ignores established law and its own regulations and policies.”
Read: Diageo considers selling its Guinness beer brand: Bloomberg News
A USPTO spokesman declined to comment.
Cubaexport and the French alcoholic beverage company Pernod Ricard sell Havana Club rum outside the United States. Pernod Ricard expressed its satisfaction with the decision in a statement.
With information from Reuters
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