Unagrande will stop producing Adyghe cheese

The outcome of the dispute can be used by companies from Adygea in proceedings with other competitors, lawyers believe.

The Arbitration Court of Bryansk region approved a settlement agreement on the claim of LLC Koshekhablsky cheese factory to Unagrande Company (brands Umalat, Pretto, Unagrande, etc.) regarding the rights to use the name "Adyghe Cheese".

As follows from the court's ruling of September 15, Unagrande undertook to abandon the use of the designations "Adyghe Cheese", "Adyghe", "following the technology of Adyghe cheese" and other confusingly similar names, as well as to pay the plaintiff 4.5 million rubles.

Koshehablsky cheese factory, which owns the rights to the name of the place of origin of the goods "Adyghe Cheese", in addition to the ban on the use of the name, demanded 20 million rubles from Unagrande.

The name of the place of origin of the goods "Adyghe Cheese" was registered in 2014. According to the conditions, only a product produced at a certain temperature using wicker baskets in the foothills of the Greater Caucasus can be called this. In addition to LLC Koshekhablsky cheese factory, nine other enterprises from Adygea have the right to use the name of the place of origin of the goods.

Unagrande has defended in the courts the right to produce soft cheese under the brand "Adyghe" since 2017.

The company claimed that its products comply with the approved State Standard (GOST) "Adyghe Cheese", and the owners of the name of the place of origin of the goods do not comply with the requirements listed in the certificate. Unagrande also stressed that the production process is not directly related to Adygea. However, the company failed to challenge either the registration of the name of the place of origin of the goods or the issuance of certificates. Unagrande estimated the volume of sales of Adyghe cheese in Russia at about 7 thousand tons per year, and its own share - at 10%.

Nikolay Zaichenko, partner of Nevsky IP Law, believes that Koshekhablsky cheese factory had enough evidence to receive at least half of the claimed compensation, therefore the defendant agreed to a settlement agreement. Especially taking into account the fact that the previous decisions of the courts in the framework of the dispute were in favor of Adyghe enterprises. The Supreme Court also agreed that there is enough evidence that Adyghe cheese has "local characteristics" related to raw materials and human resources, the lawyer says. According to Nikolay Zaichenko, Koshekhablsky cheese factory and other owners of the name of the place of origin of the goods "Adyghe Cheese" can now use the results of the dispute with Unagrande as a "manifesto and an indicative case" to influence other violators. 

According to the representative of Vkusvill, if a company that does not have a certificate supplies cheese under the brand “Adyghe”, the retail chain renames the product to “Yuzhny”. The retail chain Verny reported that before getting on the shelves, the producers of Adyghe cheese must provide a certificate with the address of the enterprise in Adygeya.

Alexey Popovichev, Executive Director of Rusbrand, calls the idea of fixing the quality and production of unique products with the help of the name of the place of origin of the goods for regions and companies correct. However, he adds, it is important that the regional authorities monitor compliance with technologies in the production of goods that have received the name of the place of origin of the goods: ‘Otherwise, the significance of the brand will be blurred with the loss of quality.’ Artem Belov, CEO of Soyuzmoloko, says that fresh cheeses with short maturation periods remain more affordable due to low cost, that is why the category has a high growth potential.