US Cheesemakers Can Keep Using ‘Gruyère’ Name, 4th Cir. Says

A federal appeals court ruled Friday that French and Swiss makers of gruyère cheese from the alpine regions where the cheese originated don’t have a monopoly on using that label.

Since as early as 2010, two cheese industry groups, Interprofession du Gruyere and Syndicat Interprofessionnel du Gruyere, have tried to stop other cheese producers from using the term “gruyère” to describe the firm, nutty flavored cheese. In 2015 they filed an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office to certify that cheeses labeled as such were made “in the Gruyère region of Switzerland and France.”

The Trademark Trial and ...