MIAMI (Reuters) -- Bermuda based Bacardi liquor firm filed a lawsuit against the Cuban government and French spirits giant Pernod-Ricard this week in Madrid to stop them marketing Cuba's famous rum label Havana Club in Spain.

Bacardi & Co Ltd said it joined the Arechabala family of Spain, owners of the rum brand until its confiscation in 1960 after Cuba's revolution, to recover ownership rights to the trademark.

The Spanish filing follows a legal victory in New York in April in which Bacardi successfully fought off a challenge by Cuba and Pernod Ricard to its US rights to the trademark name for Cuba's best selling rum.

A court dismissed the case, ruling that Havana Club Holding, a joint venture formed in 1993 by Pernod Ricard and the government of Cuban President Fidel Castro, had no right to the name in the United States.

COURTS CTS