New front opens in a most rum war

Bacardi has the rights to the Havana Club name but faces a challenge.

MIAMI - The cocktail-drinking class's thirst for mojitos and daiquiris has led to a new front opening up in a Cuban rum war that has its roots in Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

The Bacardi liquor company this week started selling its Havana Club brand in the United States after winning a 10-year trademark dispute with Cuba and the French firm Pernod Ricard.

But Pernod Ricard, which sells Havana Club rum in Europe and Havana tourist spots, says it owns the brand name and will appeal against US patent authorities' ruling that Cuba's trademark registration has expired. Its rum is banned in the US.

The move is the latest phase in a long-running fight that epitomises the tussle between Cuba's communist Government and exiles across the Florida Strait.

Bacardi's Havana Club is based on the original 1935 recipe by the Arechabala family, who produced it in Cuba until their business was seized by Castro's Government in 1960.

Bacardi, owned by a Cuban exile family, bought the brand from the Arechabalas in the 1990s. The new rum is made in Puerto Rico.

In the meantime, a joint venture between Cuban state company Cubaexport and Pernod Ricard has sold Havana Club-branded rum made in Cuba in countries outside the US.

Cuba says it obtained the Havana Club brand in 1976 after the patent lapsed. US courts ruled the Cuban-French venture had no rights to it in the US and US patent authorities last week said Cuba's trademark registration had expired.

Ramon Arechabala, 70, former sales manager for his family's firm, recalled January 1, 1960, when the state took over the distillery.

"Che Guevara's bodyguards said: 'You've got to get the hell out of here.' They pulled out machine guns and put one to my head."

He left Cuba about a month later, never to return.

- REUTERS