Oh geez, it's cheese

 

I like gruyère cheese.  But now I've realized that I probably haven't been eating authentic gruyère from Switzerland.

OK, so I checked -- and it appears that I am eating Swiss gruyère. Yay.

But apparently there's a lot of gruyère in the marketplace that isn't authentic Swiss gruyère.  And that has led to a legal entanglement of U.S. courts and European cheesemakers.

Is Gruyère Still Gruyère if It Doesn’t Come From Gruyères?

"In the ruling last month in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Judge T.S. Ellis III wrote, “Although the term gruyère may once have been understood to indicate an area of cheese production, the factual record makes it abundantly clear that the term gruyère has now, over time, become generic to cheese purchasers in the United States.” Under U.S. law, trademarks cannot be given to generic terms.

Gruyère producers in Switzerland and France, however, say that their cheese is anything but generic and that they will appeal the decision.

“We have a big problem,” said Philippe Bardet, the director of Interprofession du Gruyère, which represents gruyère producers in Switzerland. “With this decision, you can make a little cheese, a big cheese, a hard cheese, a processed cheese — and you can give the name ‘gruyère’ for all types of cheese.” "

Here's a look inside the Swiss cave where the authentic cheeses from Switzerland are aged.