The US arm of Bermuda-based Bacardi International will relaunch its Havana Club brand rum in the US this month following a decade-long legal battle with the Cuban government over the trademark.

The announcement from Bacardi USA comes after the US Patent and Trademark office deemed Cuba?s claim to the Havana Club trademark ?cancelled/expired? last Thursday.

That ruling came just six days after the US Treasury?s Office of Foreign Assets Control had denied a Cuban government agency a specific licence that was necessary to seek renewal of the trademark registration at the PTO.

The Bacardi Havana Club rum is based on a recipe which Cuba?s Arechabala family created in 1935. The family exported the rum to the United States and other countries until 1960, when Fidel Castro?s government seized control of Cuba?s rum industry, including both the Havana Club and Bacardi businesses.

While Bacardi?s owners were able to continue business using their Puerto Rico plant, the Arechabala family did not have any alternative factory to continue making the rum ? allowing the Castro regime to retain control.

For almost 25 years, Havana Club rum was primarily consumed domestically and in the Soviet bloc, but in 1993 the Cuba government formed a joint venture with French liquor giant Pernod Ricard SA to sell the rum in 80 countries. The joint venture was not able to sell Havana Club in the US due to the embargo, but Cubaexport claimed it obtained the rights to the Havana Club name in 1970s when the brand?s original owners inadvertently let the US trademark lapse.

Cubaexport registered the trademark in 1976, but no compensation was ever provided to the Arechabala family.

All the way up to the Supreme Court, US courts consistently ruled that the French/Cuban joint venture had no right to the trademark in the United States. However the issue of who held the trademark remained unresolved until the US Patent and Trademark Office declaration last week.

Bacardi, which purchased the rights to the family?s recipe and the name Havana Club in the 1990s, has applied to register the mark in its own name.

?Bacardi commends OFAC and the PTO for following US law and world-wide principles that prevent registration or renewal of trademarks obtained through confiscation, without compensation to the original owners,? said John P. Esposito, president and CEO of Bacardi U.S.A.

Although the Cubaexport Havana Club is popular in both Cuba and Europe, Mr. Ramon Arechabala told the Miami Herald it is not ?drinkable?.

?Fidel lacks the formula of the right Havana Club,?? Arechabala, 70, who has lived in Miami for 38 years, said. ?That?s the only thing Fidel couldn?t take from me.?

Bacardi?s new Havana Club will be bottled at the company?s rum facilities in Puerto Rico. For now, there will be two versions of Havana Club for sale, one from Bacardi and the other from the Cuban/French joint venture.

Bacardi executives told the Miami Herald this week that the decision to rollout Havana Club this month had nothing to do with recent interest in Cuba as a result of Castro?s health issues.

?We?ve been planning this for many years,?? said John Gomez, vice president and group marketing director for Bacardi U.S.A. ``We always owned the brand. There was no issue in our minds. It was only a question of when it was commercially appropriate for the relaunch.??

The US Patent Office ruling was just coincidental with their plans of three years to relaunch. Instead they say they are trying to capitalise on strong consumer demand for super-premium liquor brands and the popularity of classic cocktails such as the daiquiri and .

Rum itself has also been gaining popularity as a spirit around the world with Bacardi one of the top-selling brands.