Imitations are not flattery, says Gruyère AOP
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Gruyère cheese is under threat from imitations, the Swiss Gruyère AOP variety organisation says. Most recently, a restaurant in the Swiss village of Gruyères wanted to register a trademark with a Gruyère component. Then, Gruyère AOP lost a case in the US earlier this year, where US cheeses made from domestic milk also are marked as being Gruyère.
Now the Gruyère AOP organisation is looking askance at a new brand, Antoine de Fribourg, de la Gruyère/Glâne. The Internet shows that Walo von Mühlenen has registered the brand as a semi-hard cheese made at Mont Gibloux in France.
According to the Gruyère AOP organisation, it is a bit of a disaster that the Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property (IGE) doesn’t do more to protect the Swiss Gruyère cheese identity. This is because IGE thereby also supports the legal opinion, which is widespread in the US that the name Gruyère is a generic term and does not stand for a very specific cheese – namely Gruyère AOP – which is supposed to be produced only in Switzerland in accordance with public-law specifications.
