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Defense and management organization

Morbier PDO: the famous black line protected in the same way as the name [ODG].

In a long-awaited decision handed down on November 18, 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal has ruled that the central black line on Morbier PDO cheeses should be protected just like the name itself. The famous black stripe, the product's defining characteristic, is therefore reserved for this PDO.

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Defense and management organization

In its time, the Court of Justice of the European Union had been asked by the French Court of Cassation for an interpretation of the European PDO regulation: in the absence of use of the name, is the mere reproduction of the characteristic shape or appearance of the product prohibited, when it is likely to mislead the consumer as to its true origin?

A particularly distinctive reference characteristic

On December 17, 2020, the CJEU answered in the affirmative, subject to assessing whether the element reproduced constituted a reference characteristic and particularly distinctive of the product so that its reproduction could lead the consumer to believe that the product containing that element was covered by the registered name.

This assessment being a matter for the national courts, on the basis of the evidence provided by the Syndicat du Morbier, the Court of Appeal applied this European decision. It therefore considered that, in the case of the Morbier PDO, the black stripe constituted a particularly distinctive reference characteristic of the product.