A group of legislators from USA presented this Thursday a project of law to prohibit the courts from validating any claim of rights to businesses or assets that have been nationalized by the Cuban government.
The bipartisan bill was presented by congressmen and senators simultaneously in both chambers, according to a dispatch from the Efe news agency.
The initiative is led by, among others, Democrat Bob Menéndez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Republican marco rubioa high-ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere, the source says.
This bill, called “No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America”would protect the interests and rights of businessmen whose assets were “illegally seized” by the Cuban government, the legislators said in a statement.
According to Menendez, the proposal would “codify into law” the long-standing US policy of supporting “the rightful owners of stolen property,” by ensuring that US courts and the executive branch only recognize the rights of those “whose trademarks were taken.” illegally by the Cuban government.
“Any confiscation or seizure of assets by the Cuban regime is and will always be a criminal act that should not be rewarded by the Government of the United States,” said the senator, who highlighted the bipartisan support to protect the Americans whom the The Cuban government “stole their property.”
The law “No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America” It would prohibit the use of a trademark when the person using it knows, at the time of acquisition, that the name of the trademark is the same or similar to that of one confiscated by the Cuban government, the publication points out.
The promoters of the project give as an example that in 1994 a Cuban rum producer, Cuba Ron, registered the Havana Club brand in the United States, which bears the name of a brand in 1959 that was nationalized on the island.
They also cite the Bacardi brand, one of the world’s largest liquor producers, which bought the trademark and recipe from the descendants of the founder and original owner of Havana Club.
Under this legislation, the legislators point out, Cuba Ron and its partner, the Pernod Ricard group, would not be able to exercise rights related to Havana Club, since the Cuban government allegedly illegally seized the brand, thus allowing Bacardi to use the brand “which it belongs to”.
In April of last year, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) won a lawsuit filed by the company Bacardi & Co. after the PTO reaffirmed that Havana Club is Cuban property.
US court confirms that the Havana Club brand is Cuban property
Bacardi and the state-owned Cuba Ron, also known as Cubaexport, have been in litigation in US courts for two decades over the right to use the Havana Club trademark.
“It is the correction of a historical error and the clear recognition of the inherent value of intellectual property and the inviolable ownership of one’s own ideas and creations,” said Darrell Issa, one of the Republican congressmen who promoted the norm.
Since the now former US President Donald Trump activated Title III of the Hems-Burton Act, lawsuits have been filed in US courts and in other countries against companies that have allegedly benefited from properties nationalized by the Cuban government after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959.
Under that provision, a United States federal court ordered four cruise companies pay close to 440 million dollars as part of various lawsuits, in which they have been accused of using expropriated docks in Cuba for their businesses.
Efe/OnCuba
