Havana Club (Bacardi)
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Havana Club is a rum made by Bacardi in Puerto Rico with the original recipe of José Arechabala, and sold in the United States.
[edit] History
Havana Club rum, was created by José Arechabala in 1934. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the distillery and company was expropriated by the Cuban government and the Archeabala family emigrated to the United States. The Arechabala family allowed the trademark to lapse in 1973.[1]
In 1994 Bacardi entered into an alliance with the Arechabalas, and in 1997 the Arechabalas sold their residual rights to Havana Club to Bacardi, which, among other things, included the recipe for the original Havana Club rum.
During 1995 and 1996, Bacardi made a trial production of the rum in the Bahamas and sold them to the Cuban exile communities in Miami.
However, the Havana Club trademark was in the hands of Havana Club International, the Cuban Government owners, and Pernod Ricard, the French owners of the Cuban Government brand, owned the trademark in the United States through Inter-American Conventions.
After more than 10 years of legal struggles between the parties, on August 8, 2006, 5 days after the Cuban version of the trade mark was denied renewal, Bacardi released their own version of Havana Club (produced in Puerto Rico).
[edit] External Links
[edit] References
- ^ O'Connell, Robert M (November/December 2006), "A Heady Mix", World Trademark Review (no. 4): 5-10
