Round two in the Champagne name battle

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Written by DJ Spiess

Thursday, 10 July 2008

The Swiss strike back in the courts and score a small victory in the Champagne name war.

As you may recall, the European Union banned the Swiss town of Champagne from using their name on produce, including wine. The town of Champagne used to sell 110,000 bottles of wine, but since losing the right to use the name the sales have dropped to 32,000. Champagne, Switzerland fought the decision and recently won their first battle to overturn the decision.

The Swiss Federal Institute of Intellectual Property granted the local bakery registration of the trademark "from Champagne Switzerland." The courts in Paris tried to block bakeries in Champagne, Switzerland from selling biscuits labeled “Champagne recipe”.

With this victory, there is hope the French will eventually overturn the name decision for the entire town.

The town has used the name Champagne since 885, and the town started growing grapes in the region in 1657.

Swiss score one in the courts

(Source: The Windsor Star )

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