October 2009 will mark the 50th anniversary of the U.S. embargo against Cuba in some form. (A partial embargo imposed by President Eisenhower in 1960 was broadened into a virtual total ban on trade by President Kennedy in 1962.) The embargo represents the longest-lasting foreign policy sanction in U.S. history. And many think the time has come to do away with it.

Newsweek columnist Fareed Zakaria didn’t mince works in calling modern American policy toward Cuba “brain dead” and overall, he referred to it as a failure by all measures. “We’ve been trying to force regime change in Cuba for 45 years. Instead Fidel Castro is now the longest-lived head of government in the world,” Zakaria has said.

Many lawmakers recognize this, it seems, and have introduced bills in Congress that seek to end the embargo. Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana joins Zakaria in unequivocally saying the embargo has “failed” in its efforts to bring democracy to Cuba. While more join the chorus, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ordered a full review of U.S.-Cuba policy.

Another big supporter of normalizing trade relations with Cuba is Representative Charles Rangel of New York‘s 15th District, who has introduced bills in the past that seek to ease trade restrictions, the latest of which is H.R. 1528, the Export Freedom to Cuba Act of 2009.

Other bills, though, do not work in favor of the exiled Cuban cigar families who deserve fair compensation for the trademarks seized by the Communist government in 1960. One such bill is H.R. 1306 (an identical bill was proposed in the Senate, S. 749), introduced by Representative Robert Wexler of the 19th District of Florida. If this piece of legislation had passed, it would have unfairly deprived trademark holders of intellectual property rights.

While no one knows when the embargo will end, most can probably agree that we hope it doesn’t take another 50 years for these issues to be settled.