Cuba Claims Rights for Havana Club Trademark in U.S

HAVANA, Cuba, April 20 (acn) Representatives from 10 countries and from the European Communities reiterated in Geneva their call for the United States to observe the ruling of the World Trade Organization (WTO) relevant to Cuban claims for its rights over the Havana Club trade mark.

The issue is related to Washington's persistence of Section 211, which permits the Bacardi company to takeover the Cuban rum brand Havana Club, in spite of having being disqualified by the WTO Solution of Differences Court seven years ago.

Jorge Ferrer, secretary of the Cuban mission in Geneva said on Monday at a meeting of the organization that the situation has not changed and that this year's reports by the defendant have only made an ambiguous reference to the topic, reported PL.

The diplomat explained that at the end of March, according to media outlets, an American federal judge rejected a demand made by the island's CUBAEXPORT, which is the legitimate owner of the Havana Club brand, against the Foreign Assets Control Office of the U.S Treasury
Department.

Five years after the promulgation of Section 211, it was considered as a violation of the fundamental principles of the Paris Convention and the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights.

The derogation of that Section has been demanded several times at the WTO headquarters.

This year, the US attitude was questioned as well by the European Communities (representing 27 members of the continental bloc), and by China, Brazil, Ecuador, Venezuela, India, Costa Rica, Thailand, Mexico and Vietnam.

In his statements, Ecuador's representative said the dispute is the oldest pending issue of the organization.

(Reiteran reclamo a EE.UU. respecto a Cuba)