Bacardi wins US Havana Club ruling

Pernod Ricard has lost a lawsuit to stop rival Bacardi from selling “Havana Club” branded rum in the US.

Although both companies sell rum branded as Havana Club, Bacardi sells it within the US and Pernod outside.

The two companies have been at war over which of them owns the trademark name for more than 13 years, with Pernod set to appeal the latest ruling by US District Judge Sue Robinson in Wilmington, Delaware.

In its 2006 lawsuit filed in Wilmington, Pernod claimed Bacardi had no legal right to sell rum under the Havana Club name, which it had started doing in Florida.

Pernod, which sold 3.4 million cases of Havana Club during its last fiscal year, also accused Bacardi of false advertising by misleading consumers into believing that its rum is made in Cuba, as Pernod’s currently is, when it is actually produced in Puerto Rico.

However, Judge Robinson ruled that Bacardi’s rum does indeed have a Cuban heritage, having developed from a family recipe first used in Cuba around 1930.

In her ruling, Judge Robinson also found that because Bacardi’s labels "truthfully (and prominently)" show that its rum is "distilled and crafted in Puerto Rico," the labelling is neither false nor misleading.

Robinson added that Pernod presented “no evidence that today’s Havana Club rum product differs from the original pre-revolutionary Cuban rum in any significant respect.

"As the expression goes, ‘if it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck’."

Vincent Palladino, a partner at New York-based law firm Ropes & Gray, which represented Pernod, said, "We are very disappointed in the ruling. We believe the judge committed fundamental errors on the law, and in all likelihood we will be appealing."

The company later confirmed its intention to appeal, saying: "Because Pernod Ricard USA believes that this decision is legally and factually incorrect, and that the continued sale of Puerto Rican rum under the Havana Club name would deceive consumers, the company intends to appeal this decision to the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit."

Alan Lodge, 07.04.2010