FAC Nos. C-152409, C-152468
AUG 19 1996
Dear Mr. Krinsky:
This is in response to your letters of July 3 and July 22, 1996, addressed to Serena Moe, Deputy Chief Counsel of the Office of Foreign Assets Control. In your letters you ask two questions concerning the authorization contained in § 515.527 of the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, 31 C.F.R. Part 515 (the "Regulations"). First, you ask whether this section authorizes Cuba to file an opposition to the registration of a new trademark on the grounds that the new trademark interferes with Cuba's right in its registered trademark based on likely consumer confusion. Second, you ask whether Cuba may bring a petition to cancel the prior registration of a trademark related to its efforts to register a trademark.
The authorization contained in § 515.527 and the parallel provisions of § 515.528 are intended to provide...
1) Guidance letter discussed in Empresa Cubana del Tabaco v. Gen. Cigar Co., Inc., No. 13-1465 (Fed. Cir. 2014), where, in spite of the age of the letter, the court found it instructive in interpreting the 515.527(a)(1). It is not clear whether the client with respect to which the guidance was issued was actually Empresa Cubana del Tabaco; it seems not.
2) The guidance takes a relatively expansive view of the scope of "[t]ransactions related to the registration and renewal...of patents, trademarks, and copyrights in which the Government of Cuba or a Cuban national has an interest." The opposition and cancellation proceedings in connection with new, potentially infringing registrations would evidently "relate...to" the registered Cuban marks. Query re: cross-programmatic application.
Note, however, that the GL does not cover necessarily cancellation proceedings where a...