The Swiss Emmental cheese, famous for its numerous holes, cannot be trademarked in the European Union, the Court of Justice of the EU ruled Wednesday.
“The term ‘emmentaler’ cannot be protected as a European Union trade mark for cheeses,” the CJEU said in its ruling.
The mark, the court argued, is “descriptive of a type of cheese for the relevant German public and is not perceived as an indication of the geographical origin of that cheese.”
As such, “it does not enjoy protection as a collective mark,” the court ruled.
Originally produced in the German-speaking Emme valley, in the Bern region, Emmental is one of the most well-known Swiss cheeses. In 2021, 10,772 tons of it were exported globally.
The cheese has been produced under a protected designation of origin (AOP) in Switzerland since 2006, but lobby groups say it is widely copied abroad. The AOP is only valid within Switzerland, but has no jurisdiction in the EU.
The CJEU’s ruling upheld a previous decision from the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), which had rejected a request from Emmentaler Switzerland, a business group seeking to trademark the cheese brand based on its origin. Granting it EU-wide protection would have made it illegal for cheesemakers in the EU to use the name “Emmentaler.”
The Emmental cheese lobby then appealed the EUIPO’s decision in front of the CJEU. The court’s ruling is a victory for Germany and France — who supported the patent office in the case — which will be able to continue selling cheese produced domestically under the name “Emmentaler,” or “Emmental” in French.
The Emmental case is the latest legal dispute over Swiss cheeses.
In a similar legal battle in March, a U.S. court ruled that the term “gruyère” — a common label for cheese on the American market — could not be reserved for a type of cheese from the Gruyère region of Switzerland and France.
