Bacardi & Co. Ltd. and its Bacardi U.S.A. Inc. unit sued the Treasury Department for information about how state-owned CubaExport last year received a U.S. license to renew the disputed “Havana Club” trademark.
The suit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act after Treasury failed to turn over documents requested in January 2016.
Retroactive renewal of CubaExport’s trademark registration, through a license issued by the Office of Foreign Asset Control, “violated well-settled United States law (and more than fifty years of U.S. foreign policy),” Bacardi’s lawyers at Kelley Drye & Warren said in their complaint.
Bacardi claims to be the rightful owner of the trademark for Havana Club, a brand that was first produced in Cuba by a rival company, José Arechabala, S.A.