This week, two congresswomen from South Florida pressed the State Department for answers as to why the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s (OFAC) agreed to give Cubaexport, a company owned by the communist regime in Cuba, a license for the Havana Club trademark. The OFAC made that decision last year.
Republican U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the first woman to ever lead the House Foreign Affairs Committee, teamed up with Democrat U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz to send a letter to U.S. Sec. of State Rex Tillerson on the issue.
“Last year’s decision by OFAC to grant a license to Cubaexport – a wholly-owned entity of the Cuban regime – for the trademark of Havana Club was an unprecedented decision with alarming implications for American intellectual property rights holders,” Ros-Lehtinen said on Wednesday. “It was a decision made for political expedience that ignored standing U.S. law and potentially opened a Pandora’s box that could see U.S. intellectual property rights holders subject to unlawful and unjust foreign confiscations. We are asking the new administration to review this license, reverse its decision and protect rightful intellectual property owners before any lasting damage is done.”
Ros-Lehtinen called out the Obama administration for the OFAC decision early last year. This week, she was joined by Wasserman Schultz who also made the case against the decision.
“As members of Congress, we have a responsibility to uphold the values enshrined in our Constitution, including the protection against government confiscation of property without just compensation,” Wasserman Schultz said. “It is with these values in mind that we strongly urge OFAC to revoke the license it issued to the Cuban government entity Cubaexport. By allowing the Cuban regime to register the Havana Club trademark, OFAC is out of step with longstanding United States policy, and has set a terrible precedent for American intellectual property rights holders. I urge OFAC to reverse this misguided decision and send a loud and clear message to the international community that the United States has been and always will be a global leader on intellectual property rights.”
More than 20 other members of Congress signed off on Ros-Lehtinen’s and Wasserman Schultz’s letter. Members of the Florida delegation who signed the letter included Republican U.S. Reps. Gus Bilirakis, Vern Buchanan, Carlos Curbelo, Ron DeSantis, Mario Diaz-Balart, Bill Posey, Tom Rooney, Dennis Ross and Ted Yoho and Democrats U.S. Reps. Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Alcee Hastings, Al Lawson, Darren Soto and Frederica Wilson.
