An American appeals court confirmed on Friday that the term Gruyère actually refers to a common name in the United States and cannot be reserved solely for cheeses of this type originating in France or Switzerland.
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The Interprofession du Gruyère, which represents the players in the industry in Switzerland, and the Syndicat interprofessionnel du Gruyère, its French counterpart, had tried To the term in the American Register of Certified Trademarks.
But given the organization’s refusal, they filed a lawsuit and lost in the first instance in early 2022.
The judges of the Court of Appeal upheld the decision.
There is not the same protection in the United States as in Europe for food names, such as the Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) for Gruyère in France, they argue in their judgment.
The food safety authority FDA defines many criteria for Gruyere, such as the presence of “pinholes” or the fact that it has been aged for at least 90 days. However, it does not include geographical origin criteria.
Also, “Cheese, no matter where it was made, has been labeled and sold as Gruyere in the United States for decades.” And this regardless of whether it was produced in the US state of Wisconsin or imported from the Netherlands, Germany or Austria, they add.
In conclusion, they write that plaintiffs cannot dispute “what is clear from the filing: Cheese consumers in the United States understand that the term ‘Gruyere’ refers to a type of cheese, making the term generic.
This decision has been welcomed by several stakeholders in the dairy sector in the United States, including the Federation of American Dairy Producers, who hope it will encourage French and Swiss professional bodies to “stop expropriating a common food name” by adopting a new approach register A grade.