In a statement issued yesterday, Ambassador John Bruton, head of the European Commission delegation to the US, urged America to resolve long-standing IP disputes between the US and the EU.

In particular, he said that the two sides need to resolve the so-called Irish Music and Havana Club cases to “sweep away these long-standing trade irritants”.

“As the stakes continue to grow in the intellectual property arena, the US should not weaken its voice in the debate by ignoring treaty obligations and WTO decisions. American delay on fixing the ‘Irish Music’ and ‘Havana Club’ cases diminish the arguments that both the US and EU countries have against China and other countries that continue to tolerate widespread intellectual property rights infringement,” Bruton said.

In 2000, a WTO panel in the Irish Music dispute said that a US law that allows bars and shops to play music without paying royalties to the copyright owner is incompatible with the TRIPs Agreement.

John Bruton

Under the terms of a now-expired arbitration agreement, the US had provided compensation directly to the EU right holders, including makers of Irish music. The EU says that it is unhappy with the level of compensation that was paid and has complained that the compensation stopped in December 2004. Now Bruton has called on the US government to repeal the provision.

His second complaint relates to a long-running row over the ownership of the trade mark Havana Club, after US politicians passed a retroactive regulation, Section 211 targeting Cuban trade marks seized under Castro’s regime in the late 1950s and early 1960s.

As a result of the new law, the USPTO decided not to renew the Havana Club trade mark, owned by the Cuban government and joint venture partner Pernod Ricard. US company Bacardi was then able to stake its claim to the Havana Club rum brand in the US.

Bruton said that the WTO Appellate Body found in 2002 that Section 211 violates the TRIPs Agreement.

“Several bills to repeal Section 211 are currently pending in Congress,” the Ambassador said. “The EC considers that only repeal would send the right message that one cannot play with IPRs to serve political goals, or to help individual companies win a decisive advantage in a commercial dispute.”