Havana Club (Bacardi)

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This article is about a rum made in Puerto Rico and only sold in the United States. For the rum of the same name made in Cuba and sold in other parts of the world, see Havana Club.

Havana Club is a rum made by Bacardi in Puerto Rico, allegedly with the original recipe of José Arechabala, and sold in the United States.

[edit] History

Havana Club rum, was first created by José Arechabala in 1934 and sold throughout the world from his family-owned distillery in Cuba. After the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the distillery and company was nationalized by the Cuban government and the Arechabala family emigrated to the United States. The Arechabala family allowed the trademark to lapse in 1973.^[1]

In 1994 Bacardi entered into an alliance with the Arechabalas, and in 1997 the Arechabalas sold their residual rights to Havana Club to Bacardi, which, among other things, included the recipe for the original Havana Club rum.

During 1995 and 1996, Bacardi made a trial production of the rum in the Bahamas and was sold in the United States.

However, the Havana Club trademark was in the hands of Havana Club International (a business entity formed by the Cuban Government owners, and Pernod Ricard, the French owners of the Cuban Government brand) and owned the trademark in the United States through Inter-American Conventions.

After more than 10 years of legal struggles between the parties, on August 8, 2006, 5 days after the Cuban version of the trade mark was denied renewal (in the United States), Bacardi released their own version of Havana Club (produced in Puerto Rico).