EU Court rejects Biraghi's 'Grana' cheese trademark application

The EU's second highest court, the Court of First Instance, has annulled a decision made by the EU body for harmonisation of trademarks and ruled that 'Grana' is not a generic name for a type of cheese.

This means that Biraghi SpA's attempt to register Grana
Biraghi as a trademark conflicts with the geographical indication of origin
'Grana Padano'.
The court said that the previous judgement by the trademarks
division of the EU's Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market (OHIM), at
the request of Italian cheese producer Biraghi Spa, that 'Grana' was a generic
name for cheese and 'Grana Biraghi' could be registered as a trademark within
the EU, was erroneous.
It said that the decision was an infringement of the
protected designation of origin (PDO) 'Grana Padano'. PDO status means in this
case the cheese can only be produced in a certain area, according to a strict
set of rules.The court said any attempt to register a product with a similar
name to a PDO product which is not made in the correct way, or 'which misuses,
imitates or evokes a protected name' must be refused by OHIM.