The court rejected the claim of the Bryansk cheese producer Umalat regarding the production of Adygeisky cheese, as follows from the court case files.

We will remind, earlier the company applied to recognize as illegal 6 conclusions, which were issued from 2014 to 2019, regarding the possibility to produce branded cheese according to the established recipe. The petition was filed in November 2019 and was last heard in the spring of 2020. At that time, the Ministry of Agriculture acted as a defendant. The Arbitration Court in Moscow dismissed Umalat's claim, as it found no violations on the part of the agency.

The first court hearing was held two years ago in the Bryansk Region. At that time the claim against Umalat was heard from six cheese making companies which were members of the non-profit association of Adygea Cheese Producers. They claimed 8.5m roubles from the defendant for illegal use of the name of origin of their branded cheese. The companies claimed that Umalat produced counterfeit cheese and illegally called it Adygeyan cheese, as well as used the designation "New Name of Adygeyan Cheese", which was confusingly similar to it.

These claims have been rejected by courts of different instances several times. According to the court, this name of the cheese started to be widely used back in the Soviet times as a designation of certain goods without reference to the place of production. In addition, the court concluded that the technology of Adygei cheese production was industrial and therefore can be used in any entity without compromising the quality and properties of the cheese.

Despite this, the third parties involved in the lawsuit argue that they have an exclusive right to use the unique name of the place of origin. Also, according to their statements, the technology of Adygea cheese production appeared in Adygea in 1968, it was created by the head of Adygea milk plant Madina Kheyshkho, and 3 years later this product was granted a copyright certificate.

In addition, according to the documents of the case, in 1975, technical conditions for the production of cheese were developed and approved.

In 2018, the Ministry of Agriculture concluded that the cheese can be produced exclusively in Kuban and Adygea, where there is a single department of Rosselkhoznadzor for control.

Made in Russia // Made in Russia

Author: Ksenia Gustova