A US court of appeals confirmed on Friday that the term gruyère is a common label for cheese and can’t be reserved for a type from a specific region, namely in Switzerland or France, on the US market.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA/jdp
A consortium of Swiss and French cheesemakers from the region around the town of Gruyères in western Switzerland had tried to register the term gruyère in the US as a certified brand. But after being denied an application for trademark protection, they filed a complaint in the state of Virginia, losing in the first instance in early 2022.
On Friday, the Virginia-based US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit upheld the decision, arguing that the US doesn’t have the same protections as in Europe on the name of food products.
“Cheese – regardless of its location of production – has been labeled and sold as gruyere in America for decades,” the courtExternal link said. This concerns cheese produced in Wisconsin or as far away as the Netherlands, Germany or Austria, they added.
The decision was welcomed by several players in the US dairy sector, including the Federation of American Dairy Producers, who said that they hope the ruling will encourage the French and Swiss professional federations to “stop trying to expropriate a common name from food” by registering a trademark.
The Swiss and French federations were, however, “disappointed”, according to their lawyer. “We think the actual situation in the US market is different than as stated by the Court of Appeals, and we will continue to pursue vigorously our efforts to protect the certification mark for the high-quality Gruyere AOP (P.D.O protected designation of origin) product in the US,” said attorney Richard Lehv in a message sent to Agence France-Presse.
Nature magazine: scientific breakthroughs in medicine and space travel in 2025
This content was published on
The science magazine Nature expects breakthroughs in mind-reading machines, new weight-loss drugs, and particle physics in 2025.
This content was published on
Swiss minister Karin Keller-Sutter wants to use Platform X to communicate with the population during her term as president in 2025.
Swiss Post delivers record number of parcels in pre-Christmas period
This content was published on
Swiss Post delivered a total of 22.3 million parcels between the Black Friday promotional week at the end of November and Christmas.
SWISS plane in Graz: employee still in intensive care
This content was published on
The cabin crew member of the SWISS Airbus A220 which made an emergency landing in Graz, Austria, on Monday is still in intensive care.
WWF sounds alarm: wildlife populations are plummeting
This content was published on
The WWF’s Living Planet Report 2024 found that the wild animal populations surveyed have shrunk by an average of 73% over the last 50 years.
Two decades after tsunami, Swiss tourists flock to Southeast Asia
This content was published on
Twenty years after a catastrophic tsunami in Southeast Asia, the region is again a top destination for Swiss, including at Christmas.
Swiss forests better equipped for storms 25 years after Lothar
This content was published on
Twenty-five years after Hurricane Lothar wreaked havoc in Switzerland, the country’s forests are now better prepared, experts say.
This content was published on
A court in the US has ruled that cheese does not have to come from the Gruyère region of Switzerland to be sold under this name.
This content was published on
Until the Second World War fondue was little known in Switzerland. A a marketing campaign turned it into a national dish.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.