Havana Club Leaves the Register, COHIBA Waits on the Fourth Circuit: Cuban Marks in the United States After 2026

Two of the most famous Cuban brands in the world have spent decades in American courts. In 2026, both reached a turning point within a few months of each other, and the lessons apply to every brand owner with a Cuban connection.

Havana Club: a win in court, then a lapse

The Havana Club dispute between Bacardi and Cubaexport, the Cuban state export company, goes back to the 1990s. Its modern chapter turned on a renewal. In 2006, Cubaexport could not pay the U.S. registration renewal fee because OFAC refused to license the payment, and for years the registration looked lost. In 2016, OFAC issued a license, the payment was accepted and the USPTO treated the registration as renewed. Bacardi challenged that decision.

On June 16, 2026, the Fourth Circuit affirmed in Bacardi & Co. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, holding that the 2016 license validated the earlier renewal payment. On its face, Cubaexport had won.

Then came the next deadline. A U.S. registration must be maintained with a declaration of use under Section 8 and a renewal under Section 9 at each ten-year anniversary, with a grace period after each deadline. According to the USPTO's own records, Registration No. 1031651 for HAVANA CLUB, first registered in 1976, was cancelled on August 7, 2026 because the registrant did not file an acceptable Section 8 declaration.

What happened is not yet public. I have not found a report of whether Cubaexport tried to file, whether a license was sought or refused, or whether the 2024 No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act played any role. Commentators had argued before the deadline that the new law would bar the next renewal. Whatever the reason, the registration that survived a twenty-year fight did not survive its maintenance cycle.

COHIBA: the Inter-American Convention on appeal

The COHIBA dispute runs the other way. Cubatabaco, the Cuban state tobacco company, persuaded the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board in December 2022 to cancel General Cigar's U.S. COHIBA registrations under Article 8 of the 1929 Inter-American Convention, a treaty that lets the owner of a mark protected in one member country challenge a later registration in another. In May 2025, the Eastern District of Virginia affirmed and dismissed General Cigar's complaint with prejudice, also holding that the Cuban embargo regulations do not bar the cancellation.

General Cigar appealed. The Fourth Circuit heard argument on September 16, 2026 in No. 25-1645, before Judges Gregory, Thacker and Quattlebaum. General Cigar's arguments for reversal include the embargo and issue and claim preclusion from earlier rounds of the litigation. No decision has been reported.

The new statute in the background

In December 2024, Congress enacted the No Stolen Trademarks Honored in America Act. It extends the rule of Section 211 of the Department of Commerce and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1999, enacted in the October 1998 omnibus act, which barred U.S. courts from recognizing certain rights in marks connected to confiscated Cuban businesses, to agencies of the executive branch, including the USPTO, where the person asserting rights knew or had reason to know of the connection.

How the USPTO will apply that statute is still an open question. I have not found examination guidance or a rule implementing it. Its effect on any particular Cuban mark will depend on the facts of that mark's history, which is exactly the kind of record that decades-old disputes are made of.

What this means for cigar brand owners

The two cases point in different directions on the merits, but they agree on method:

• Maintenance is substance. Section 8 and Section 9 deadlines, and the grace periods after them, decide whether a registration exists. Owners who need a license to pay fees must build that time into the calendar.
• Treaties matter. The Inter-American Convention gave Cubatabaco a remedy that ordinary U.S. trademark doctrine might not have. Owners with brands rooted in Latin America should know which treaties apply between the countries where they sell.
• History is evidence. Under Section 211 and the 2024 Act, the story of how a mark came to be owned can decide whether it is recognized. Keep the chain of title, and the history behind it, documented.

The Cigar Law^TM Tracker will record the Fourth Circuit's COHIBA decision when it comes.