Feel free to call that Alpine-style cheese from Wisconsin "Gruyere." That's according to a US appeals court, which ruled last week that the label can be used for cheese made not only in the Swiss-French region it's named after, but also for cheese made in the United States, reports Reuters. With its Friday ruling, the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia upheld an original ruling made by the US Patent and Trademark Office, which had years ago turned away a bid by two groups repping cheesemakers from Switzerland and France.
Per the BBC, those organizations had wanted the name "Gruyere" to be applied only to cheeses made for centuries in the actual Gruyere region of Europe. But the court noted that those groups "cannot overcome what the record makes clear: Cheese consumers in the United States understand 'GRUYERE' to refer to a type of cheese, which renders the term generic." The requirements for a cheese in the US to be considered Gruyere are far less stringent than those in Europe, which include geographic limitations, though that doesn't mean any old cheese can be deemed Gruyere—for instance, per FDA rules, the cheese has to be aged for at least 90 days and must have "small holes."
In a statement, National Milk Producers Federation CEO Jim Mulhern calls the ruling "a significant win for America's dairy farmers." The Washington Post notes that the battle between the two factions "has curdled since 2015," when the USPTO first was handed a complaint from the overseas contingent. In 2021, a Virginia district court upheld that office's decision. An attorney for the Swiss and French groups says they're disappointed, and that they'll "continue to pursue vigorously" their attempts to control the Gruyere stamp of approval. More here on what the Post calls the cheese's "long and storied history." (More cheese stories.)
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