“The so-called ‘No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act’, recently signed by Biden modifies the law into an aggressive measure against Cuba,” the Cuban Foreign Minister wrote on Monday in X.

According to the diplomat, this rule “precisely (seeks) to open the door, in violation of International Law, for the theft of legitimately registered Cuban trademarks” in US territory.

The White House reported that Biden signed the bill, previously approved by the United States Congress, that prohibits the Patent and Trademark Office from recognizing, enforcing or otherwise validating any claim of rights over such trademarks.

In Cuba there are 6,448 registered American trademarks and 1,177 in the process of registration, according to the Deputy Director General of the General Section of the United States at the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Johana Tablada de la Torre.

All of them are protected by the Cuban Industrial Property authority, in a very different attitude from that adopted by the United States government when signing the ‘No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act,’ which should be called the Bacardi Law, she stated on the social network.

The diplomat was hereby alluding to the dispute between Cuba and the Bacardi company over the rights to the worldwide distribution of the island’s most emblematic rum, Havana Club.

Biden signed the bill at a time when numerous organizations and personalities around the world are urging him directly, or at international forums, to modify the White House policy towards Cuba.

Eliminating the economic blockade, reversing the restrictions imposed by Donald Trump in his first term and excluding Cuba from the list of nations sponsoring terrorism, a list drawn up unilaterally by Washington, are just but a few among the many demands repeatedly put forward.

ied/jha/raj