Interprofession du Gruyère v. U.S. Dairy Export Council

Gruyere cheese originated in the Gruyère region of Switzerland and France and was made using milk from cows that grazed on alpine grasses. Both Switzerland and France approved protected designations for the term gruyere so that the term’s use on a food product guaranteed that the product originated in the Gruyère region. No comparable designation existed in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration had issued a standard of identity for gruyere cheese, but the standard did not impose any geographic restrictions on the cheese’s production. Consequently, much of the cheese sold in the United States under the gruyere label originated in the United States or foreign countries other than Switzerland and France. Believing that the term gruyere should be used only to refer to cheese originating from the Gruyère region, French consortium Syndicat Interprofessionel du Gruyère and Swiss consortium Interprofession du Gruyère (the consortiums) (plaintiffs) filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to register the word gruyere as a certification mark that would certify that cheese labeled as gruyere originated in the Gruyère region. The U.S. Dairy Export Council and Intercibus, Inc. (collectively, the opposers) (defendants) opposed registration of gruyere as a certification mark. They argued that United States consumers understood the term gruyere to refer to a type of cheese, not the cheese’s place of origin. They therefore claimed that the term gruyere was generic and thus ineligible for registration as a certification mark. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board agreed and denied registration. The district court upheld that determination, granting summary judgment in the opposers’ favor. The consortiums appealed to the Fourth Circuit.