Section 3(h) of the Law on Trademarks (22,362) prohibits the registration of a person's name, pseudonym or portrait as a trademark without either their consent or that of their heirs up to the fourth degree.

Cuba Ron SA applied to register the trademark ARECHABALA under Class 33 in Argentina. Maria Catalina Arechabala Arechabala opposed the registration, arguing a lack of legitimate interest on the part of the applicant and the grounds of Section 3(h) of the Law on Trademarks.

The controversy in Argentina originated in the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, when the main rum-manufacturing companies were nationalised. Among these was a company that had been founded by José Arechabala in Cárdenas in the early 1920s and operated under his name in the legal form of a corporation.

The opposing party in this case was Arechabala's great-granddaughter. She stated that the sign ARECHABALA was her family's name and represented her great-grandfather's effort and well-earned reputation in the rum and spirits market.

On 23 July 2020 the case was settled by Division 1 of the National Federal Court of Appeals in Civil and Commercial Matters, which declared that Arechabala Arechabala's opposition to the registration of the trademark ARECHABALA under Class 33 in Argentina was groundless.

This decision is significant because it establishes an essential base regarding the registrability of proper names and when an application requires the owner's consent or that of their heirs.

In the court's decision, it stated as follows:

the doctrine and the case-law agree on [sic] that the core of the prohibition (of section 3, subsection h, of the Law on Trademarks) refers to the name and surname, as they are both used for constituting the person's identity and, in this case, they allow associating it with a certain field of the productive activity…

the sign intended to be registered by the Corporation ('ARECHABALA') is not the complete name of the defendant, and it was not her but her grandfather who founded the company… Thus, there is no risk in 'ARECHABALA', alone, being associated [with] the person of the opposing party or in the applicant taking advantage of a prestige she actually lacks…

the Law on Trademarks, the Paris Convention, and the Trips Agreement… do not enable the judges to revise the processes of trademark transfer or expropriation conducted in other countries. In accordance [with] this and [with] the facts examined, it is evident that the consent of Mr. José Arechabala's heirs is not required in order to register 'ARECHABALA' in the Argentine Republic.