Posted at 6:43 a.m. EST Tuesday, March 20, 2001
Cuba will sell own, 'better' Bacardí rum
Castro targeting trademark battle
By Mimi Whitefield. mwhitefield@herald.com
President Fidel Castro has warned that Cuba may soon be serving up
Cuban-made Bacardí on the rocks in retaliation for its long-standing
trademark dispute with the rum maker over Havana Club, now the island's most
famous rum brand.
"We have given instructions for our industry to start producing Bacardí,
because it is ours and better than what they produce,'' Castro said in a
wide-ranging speech broadcast Sunday on Cuban television.
Bermuda-based Bacardí is a family-controlled company that has made
its namesake rums since 1862 -- first in Cuba and then offshore after 1960, when
Cuba's communist government confiscated its holdings.
"They've robbed the trademark, for example, of Bacardí, which is
Cuban . . . and now they have robbed that of Havana Club, which is Cuban,''
Castro said.
A spokesman for the tight-lipped company was not available for comment
Monday.
But Castro had plenty to say about Bacardí and other products that he
warned could be produced in Cuba: "We'll be able to benefit from the
millions [of dollars] that have been spent [on advertising] some products
because it's very easy to produce them. Here we can produce Palmolive, any
toothpaste . . . ''
Castro's threat to begin producing Bacardí was just the latest salvo
in a long-standing trademark battle over Havana Club rum.
The fight began in 1995 when Bacardí bought rights to Havana Club
from its original Cuban makers, the Arechabala family. They had made the rum
brand until the government seized their distillery in 1960.
Legally blocked from using the also-seized Bacardí name abroad, Cuba
began producing and exporting Havana Club and it became its top export brand in
Europe, Canada, and Mexico.
The Cuban government first registered the brand with the U.S. Patent and
Trademark office in 1976. Since then Havana Club Holdings -- a joint Cuban
venture with French liquor giant Pernod-Ricard -- has registered the brand in
183 countries.
After Bacardí bought the brand from the Arechabalas, it announced
plans to begin selling the rum in the United States. Havana Club Holdings filed
a trademark suit in U.S. District Court in New York. Even though the U.S.
embargo prohibits Cuba from selling its rum in the United States, trade experts
say the lawsuit was aimed at protecting future distribution rights if the
embargo is lifted.
But Cuba's legal challenges have not gone well. Last year, the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a ruling that would allow Bacardí
to sell Havana Club in the United States and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to
rule on the dispute.
Bacardí's legal fortunes were greatly aided by a 1998 U.S. law,
sponsored by Florida Sens. Connie Mack and Bob Graham, that denies legal
protection to the trademarks of properties seized by the Castro government.
The European Union complained to the World Trade Organization that the law,
known as Section 211, is a violation of a a global agreement to protect
intellectual property rights. The matter is still pending before the WTO.
In retaliation for Section 211, Cuba threatened to stop protecting the
trademarks of thousands of U.S. companies, ranging from Calvin Klein to
McDonald's, that have been registered in Cuba. But it hasn't done so.
At one point, Castro even hinted Cuba might begin producing Coca-Cola. "Maybe
there are some who say, Caramba! Let's taste Cuban Coca-Cola or brand-name
perfumes, or other goods sold in duty-free shops,'' he said during a speech in
1999.
Despite the embargo, U.S. companies are allowed to register their trademarks
in Cuba.
"When Cuba nationalized U.S. companies, it did not nationalize
intellectual property,'' pointed out John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba
Trade & Economic Council.
In fact, in 1995 when the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control failed to
renew a provision that allows U.S. companies to pay fees to Cuba to keep their
trademarks current, the Cuban government said it would still respect them. The
provision allowing payment for trademark registration fees was renewed a year
later.
"I think it's unlikely we'll see the Cuban government make use of any
well-known U.S. brand,'' Kavulich said. But he said Bacardí could be
another matter.
"No one should be surprised to see the Havana Club distillery in Cuba
producing a special limited edition of Bacardí rum. The reason? The
proverbial stick in the eye,'' he said.
Emilio Milián is laid to rest in Little Havana
By Luisa Yanez . lyanez@herald.com Posted at 6:58 a.m. EST
Sunday, March 18, 2001
Hundreds of Cuban exiles gathered at a Little Havana church on Saturday to
pay final respects to Emilio Milián -- a popular radio newscaster whose
life was defined by a car bombing meant to silence him. The horrific violence
directed at Milián on April 30, 1976, and his courageous return to radio
after losing both legs were the prevalent themes at the morning Mass in his
honor.
Milián died at home on Thursday at age 69.
The attempt on Milián's life, prompted by his criticism of terrorist
tactics used by anti-Fidel Castro forces in the late 1970s, will symbolize a
dark chapter in Miami exile politics.
There were few dignitaries among the tearful mourners who filled the pews at
St. John Bosco Catholic Church on West Flagler Street. The crowd was mostly "gente
del pueblo,'' common folk, said Milian's son, Alberto Milián. "My
father would have liked that,'' he said. "He was one of you.''In a eulogy
that earned a standing ovation from the crowd of about 300, Alberto Milián
told how his father pieced his life back together. "Six months after the
bombing, he walked out of a hospital on artificial legs. No warrior stood taller
that day,'' his son said, pointing at his father's casket, draped by a
50-year-old Cuban flag.
Those responsible for the attack were never arrested.
"They must be humiliated today, hiding in some dark corner. They didn't
silence my father -- instead they made him a symbol,'' said his son, a former
Broward prosecutor.
Mexico shifts policy toward Castro
Oscar Elizundia. Published Monday, March 19, 2001.
Mexican President Vicente Fox's policy toward Cuba seems to have departed
sharply from Fox's positions as a candidate -- a shift that is disturbing.
Consider these events:
Fidel Castro attended Fox's inauguration as his guest. Castro purposely
avoided arriving in Mexico the night before so as not to attend the dinner
offered to the heads of state and government by outgoing President Ernesto
Zedillo.
The new Mexican ambassador to Havana, Ricardo Pascoe, declared that the
embassy's doors would be closed to the island's dissidents. The same doors were
encouragingly opened under the Zedillo government. This makes no sense.
The cordial language of the message sent by Fox to Castro on the 42nd
anniversary of the Cuban revolution contrasts with the language used by the
previous administration condemning the violation of human rights in Cuba during
the Ninth Ibero-American Summit in Havana in November, 1999.
Also unexplainable was Fox's announcement that he would make an official
visit to Cuba. That since has been indefinitely postponed. Zedillo was the first
president in the current era who didn't make a state visit to the island.
Mexico will have to vote in Geneva at the upcoming UN Commission on Human
Rights meeting whether it will join the U.S. resolution condemning Castro's
government for violating human rights in Cuba. Last year at the same forum, the
previous administration abstained from voting. However, the speech given a year
ago by Mexican ambassador Antonio de Icaza, which exposed the causes and basis
for that decision, was "particularly rough'' in diplomatic terms. It
accentuated Castro's irritation toward Zedillo.
Oscar Elizundia
Former general consul of Mexico
Miami
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