Pernod Ricard SA, which sells Havana Club rum in every country except the United States, was dealt a blow in efforts to sell the liquor in the American market after the U.S. Supreme Court decided not to intervene in a clash over rights to the name, Business Week reported May 15.

The justices left intact a U.S. government agency’s rejection of a bid by Cuba’s state-owned Cubaexport to renew its U.S. trademark on the Havana Club name.

Pernod has an agreement with Cubaexport dating to 1993 under which it can sell Havana Club in countries other than in the U.S., where it is prevented from doing so by an embargo on goods produced in Cuba.

Bacardi Ltd. has sold a Puerto Rican-made rum under the Havana Club name in Florida since 2006.

Pernod and Bacardi, based in Bermuda, have been fighting since 1994, when Bacardi applied for a U.S. trademark for its rum.

Pernod, which has been trying to position itself to sell rum under the Havana Club name should the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods be lifted, said in an emailed statement that it would instead start selling a new rum, Havanista, in the U.S. if the ban is revoked.

Havanista is “specifically aimed at the U.S. market” and will “benefit from the same high-level production processes and quality requirements as the Havana Club range,” said Pernod, which is based in Paris.

The U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control refused to renew Cubaexport’s trademark, relying on a 1998 law making trademarks confiscated by the Cuban government unenforceable.

A federal appeals court in Washington upheld the decision. The law has been applied only to the Havana Club mark.

A different federal appeals court ruled against Pernod on a separate issue in August. It said consumers wouldn’t be confused into thinking Bacardi’s Havana Club rum was made in Cuba because the label says it is made in Puerto Rico.