Geneva, 28/09/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European Union this week secured the establishment of a panel at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) entrusted with enacting on the dispute between the French firm, Pernod Ricard, and the American company, Bacardi, on the use of the "Havana Club" tradename. Pernod Ricard has been marketing a rum manufactured in Cuba under this denomination since 1993. The rum cannot have access to the US market because of the United States anti-Castro legislation. It is marketed by Havana Club Holding (HCH), a joint undertaking between Pernod Ricard and a Cuban public company. Since 1994, the US firm Bacardi patented the "Havana Club" brand in the United States for a rum produced in the Bahamas.
Last February, the American justice system dismissed the case of the French group which wanted to ban the use of its brand name by Bacardi. Its decision was based on an American trade measure dated 1998, "Section 211" preventing the courts of the United States to recognise tradenames of Cuban origin in relation to nationalised goods following the revolution of Fidel Castro. Due to the American embargo against the Havana regime, Pernod Ricard cannot sell its rum in the United States and the company would remain heavily penalised because of this even if sanctions have just been lifted since its tradename is already used on the North American market where Bacardi is the main player with a 50% market share (the rum is in volume one of the three most largely sold spirits in the world and the United States represents the largest market in value for this product).
The proceedings initiated before WTO aim to reestablish Pernod Ricard in its intellectual property rights. The EU, which has already challenged various extra-territorial aspects of US legislation, reproaches the United States for not having complied with its commitments to the WTO under the TRIPs agreements. It is now up to the panel to give its opinion.