The French and Swiss producers of the famous Alpine cheese, who were trying to protect the appellation, have just suffered a bitter setback in the American justice system.
After feta or brie, make way for “made in the USA” gruyère? The French and Swiss producers of the famous Alpine cheese are trying to protect the appellation but have just suffered a bitter setback in the American justice system. A federal judge ruled last week that the term Gruyere had become “generic” in the United States, which, according to him, prevents it from being registered in the trademark register to reserve it for products originating in Switzerland and France.
In a decision of about thirty pages, Judge TS Ellis points out that American producers have been making Gruyère in the State of Wisconsin since the 1980s, and that more than half of the Gruyère imported into the United States between 2010 and 2020 was produced in Germany and the Netherlands. “Decades of importing, producing, and selling cheeses called Gruyère but produced outside the Gruyère region of France and Switzerland have eroded the meaning of the term and made it generic,” he writes.
“Historic Victory”
Even the dictionaries do not all mention the geographical origin of this “cow’s milk cheese, with a cooked paste forming holes”, although it appeared from the 12th century in the Alps, notes the magistrate. The Gruyère interprofession, which represents the players in the sector in Switzerland, and the Syndicat interprofessionnel du Gruyère, its French counterpart, notified Monday their intention to appeal this decision.
For them, Gruyère, which benefits from protected designations of origin in both countries, “is made with care from local and natural ingredients, using traditional methods that ensure the link between the region of origin and the quality of the end product. “Cheese made in Wisconsin cannot replicate the unique taste of real Gruyère made in Switzerland or France,” they wrote in their original complaint. On the American side, players in the sector have on the contrary hailed “a historic victory”.
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