A top executive from Bermudian-based drinks giant Bacardi has appeared before a US House of Representatives committee in a trademark battle with the Communist government of Cuba.

Rick Wilson, Bacardi senior vice-president for external affairs, was called as a witness by the judiciary committee as part of a Congressional hearing into a decision by the American government last month to give the Cuban government rights to the Havana Club rum brand name — a trademark Bacardi insists is its property.

Mr Wilson told congressmen on a subcommittee on courts intellectual property and the internet: “These decisions are unprecedented and shocking because they undo decades of United States law and policy by approving Cuba’s efforts to capitalise on and traffic in stolen goods.”

He was speaking after the US government granted a renewal of the Havana Club trademark to the Cuban government and its business partner, French-based drinks multinational Pernod Ricard.

The move came as US president Barack Obama moved to thaw relations with Cuba, which has been the subject of a trade embargo since the 1960s.

Bacardi maintains that the move breaches a 1998 Act of Congress designed to protect trademarks taken over by the Fidel Castro-led Cuban regime after the 1959 revolution that propelled him to power.

The company said the US Patent and Trademark Office granted the renewal of the registration of the trademark after “years of inactivity” and within 48 hours.

The trademark originally belonged to the Cuban rum-makers Jose Arechabala, whose family company was seized and nationalised after Castro took over.

The family left Cuba, stopped producing rum and allowed the US trademark to lapse in 1973. The Cuban government registered the trademark in the US in 1976 and it was assigned to Pernod Ricard in 1993.

Since 1994, Cuban Havana Club has been sold around the world by the joint venture, but not in the US.

Bacardi obtained the Arechabala family’s remaining rights in the brand in 1994 and began selling limited amounts of Havana Club rum in the US, which sparked a legal battle with Pernod Ricard, which was successful in two of the first three court decisions in the matter.

After further legal battles, the Cuban government’s US trademark registration expired in 2006.

Mr Wilson told the subcommittee last Thursday: “Courts in the US have steadfastly held that foreign confiscations will not be given effect because such confiscations are ‘shocking to our sense of justice’.”

He added regulations in the US which back up the longstanding trade embargo against Cuba prohibit all transactions involving property, including trademarks, in which Cuba, or any Cuban national, has an interest, except when authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury.

Mr Wilson said: “The Cuban government seized Jose Arechabala SA, a viable business with a well-known mark, and, without any interruption in the business, began making and selling rum under the Havana Club brand.

“What occurred was a forcible confiscation at gunpoint. Pernod Ricard, knowing all of this sordid history, chose to invest with Cuba in this stolen brand.”

He added that US law had for decades prevented the Cuban government from profiting from the US Havana Club registration and that it should continue to do so.

Sub-committee chairman Darrell Issa, a Republican from California, said: “Integrity in our trademark system is fundamental to property rights in the United States.

“The decision to grant the Havana Club trademark to the Cuban government decades after it was effectively stolen during the revolution is an act that deserves scrutiny by the committee.”

The Royal Gazette reported earlier this month that Bacardi had demanded documents relating to the U-turn on Havana Club from US President Barack Obama, the US Patent and Trademark Office, the Office of Foreign Assets Control and the US Department of State under American freedom of information laws.

House of Representatives judiciary committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, a Republican from Vermont, said: “The Cuban government, led by Fidel Castro, has stolen billions in property, including homes and businesses owned by Americans and American investors.”

He added: “As the Obama administration looks to improve relations with Cuba, important questions remain about how these claims will be satisfied.”