A federal appeals court has weighed in on a subject of the utmost importance: which cheese can be legally labeled gruyere. Under the ruling by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, that “gruyere” on your supermarket shelf does not have to come from the region of the same name in Switzerland and France. European cheese syndicates wanted to trademark the word gruyere to stop, let’s say, some cheesemonger in Wisconsin from using it on their wares, but the U.S. dairy industry fought that.
