Monday, April 14, 2008

French Court Bars Champagne Cookies

A Paris court on Wednesday barred a Swiss-based cookie maker from using the term "from Champagne" on its packaging.

The ruling said the advertising by SAS Cornu violates the trademark used by makers of the sparkling wine in the Champagne region of eastern France.

Cornu is based in a Swiss village that also happens to be called Champagne, and its cookie packages note that they use recipes "from Champagne."

The French court ruling also said the company's Swiss-based web site — http://www.champagne.ch — illegally co-opts the name.

The CIVC, a Champagne winegrowers' committee that brought the case, hailed the ruling, which applies only in France. It says cigarettes, perfume and a bubble-bath product had wrongly tried to use the name in the past.

Under French law, the name can only be used in commercial marketing for the sparkling wine. A group of winemakers from the Swiss village of Champagne lost a similar legal battle last year to attach the town's name to locally produced wine.