trade law a US judge's decision to allow Bermuda-based liquor firm Bacardi to use the Island's world-famous rum label, Havana Club, in the United States.

The government of Fidel Castro hinted the trademark dispute may escalate, with Cuba considering reprisals against US brands registered on the island.

"The (Cuban) experts are analysing the reach and implication of the US judge's decision,'' Foreign Ministry spokesman Alejandro Gonzalez told reporters. "Once that analysis is done, Cuba reserves the right to take the necessary measures to make our rights valued.'' US District Judge Shira Scheindlin affirmed this month that the Cuban-French joint venture selling Cuba's Havana Club brand currently has no rights to the trademark in the United States, and Bacardi could sell rum there under that name.

That ruling was based in part on a 1998 US legal clause establishing that Cuban nationals cannot assert rights in trademarks and patents used by businesses confiscated by the Castro government after the 1959 Cuban Revolution.

The original Havana Club firm was confiscated from its Cuban owners, the Arechabala family, in 1960, without compensation, according to Bacardi.

Gonzalez said the US court ruling was a negative precedent for international trade. "It violates regulations...relating to the register of trademarks and patents, which could even be used against the US companies,'' he said.

Scores of US brands, including Coca-Cola, Marlboro and McDonald's, are legally registered in Cuba.