cheese Emmentaler cannot be registered as a trademark in European Union, because it is considered a type of cheese and not a geographic origin, Europe’s second-largest court said on Wednesday.

Emmental is a yellow semi-hard cheese made from cow’s milk, which is produced in the vicinity of Emmental (Emme Valley) in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. The name Emmentaler (Emmentaler Switzerland) is a protected designation of origin product, but not the name Emmentaler, so cheeses called Emmentaler are made in both France and Bavaria. It is often referred to simply as Swiss cheese.

Emmentaler Switzerland, which registered the word Emmentaler with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), has filed an appeal with the General Court after the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) rejected its application for WIPO recognition.

The court, based in Luxembourg, upheld the EU patent office.

“Since the claimed mark for the German public concerned describes a type of cheese and is not taken as an indication of the geographical origin of the cheese in question, the Court of General Jurisdiction concludes that it does not enjoy protection as a collective mark. ‘, the court said.

In addition to the popular cheeses that share the common name Emmental, the European Union has recognized two Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) and two Protected Geographical Indications (PGI) for products of the three countries produced in certain zones from unpasteurized milk and with the addition of specific specifications, mainly from small cheese factories. These are the Swiss Emmentaler PDO, which many call the “king of the mountain cheeses”, the German Allgäuer Emmentaler PDO from the mountains of Bavaria, and the French Emmental de Savoie and Emmental français est-central, which are classified as PGI.

According to Reuters