Significant win for dairy farmers: Gruyere can be used to describe US-made cheese

Appealing against a previously-upheld decision, Switzerland’s Interprofession du Gruyère (IDG) and France’s Syndicat Interprofessionel du Gruyère (SIG) argued that the word ‘gruyere’ should only be used to label cheese produced in the Guyére region of Switzerland and France. The term ‘gruyere’ is protected in Europe under the PDO (protected designation of origin) and the PGI (protected geographical indication) marks, but parallel protections do not exist in the US. Instead, the FDA uses a ‘standard of identity’ that describes the requirements cheesemakers must meet in order to have their cheese labeled as ‘gruyere’. But the standard, which has been in use since 1977, does not impose geographical restrictions, meaning that cheese regardless of its location of production had been sold as ‘gruyere’ in the US for decades . In a bid to restrict how the term is used by retailers and producers, the European consortiums applied to the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) to register ...