5 ms·

A convenient link to the video in question: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6T_BJjitGQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6T_BJjitGQ

• iso1631 6y ago
  A quick scan of the complaint indicated they might have a case -- trademarks are important to protect the consumer. However watching the infringing video, he goes to great length to make it clear how it's in the style of Grana Pedano, it's not actually Grana Pedano. His "Feta" video on his channel's home page is more supicious in my layman opinion.
  • sam_lowry_ 6y ago
    The funny part is that Grana Padano were infringing on Parmigiano-Reggiano for centuries.
    • qalmakka 6y ago
      Lol, that's kind of true. They've been producing basically a _slightly_ inferior, cheaper knock-off version of Parmigiano-Reggiano for centuries and nobody ever complained; at least they always steered clear from associating themselves with the "Parmesan" brand because like many knock-offs they basically achieve what is arguably a less prestigious and blander product by having laxer quality standards. For instance, Parmigiano-Reggiano can only be made by cows eating certain kinds of grass, which should be dried and not fermented. Farmers grow their own alfalfa, which is then turned into bales and stored away for the winter months; this is a taxing and expensive process, but avoiding fermented, cheeper feeds (like maize trimmings) makes the milk more shelf stable, with less unwanted bacteria, which then reflects into a cheese less prone to spoiling or tasting off. The insistence of Grana Padano (which is mostly made on an industrial scale, compared with the smaller, cooperative dairies in the Parmigiano-Reggiano area) to allow farmers to use lower-quality feed stored in silos forces them to allow preservatives like Lysozyme in their formulation, because their milk gets inevitably contaminated by the Clostridium bacteria from the fermented feed they give to their cows. Before anyone complains, I might be a bit biased towards Parmigiano-Reggiano because I was born and raised in the area it is produced, so I ate a lot of it in every form, shape and size, but I think every cheese connoisseur knows that there's definitely a taste and quality difference between the two; I like Grana Padano overall, but even when long aged it's definitely not as deep, flavourful and complex as an equivalent wheel of Parmigiano-Reggiano. It's simply not the same.
      • makomk 6y ago
        From what I can tell, they're probably one of the big beneficiaries of the EU removing the last generic term for this kind of cheese by extending protection to the word Parmesan - a lot of UK supermarkets and the like switched to pushing Grana Padano instead.
      • visarga 6y ago
        You talk at length about the 'cheese' part of the issue, but there is also the 'free speech' part. Do you think a brand of cheese can be so special as to justify censuring speech?
        • qalmakka 6y ago
          No, it's not, otherwise all those "homemade Nutella" recipes and such would all be illegal. It's not like this guy was going to sell the cheese as Grana Padano, so I really don't see the point the Consortium is trying to make, especially since the final product is just approximately similar to Grana Padano, and clearly not 100% exact. It's like as if Coca Cola went after all those cheap generic Colas only because they are clearly piggybacking on the big brand popularity of Coke to sell their product. I think that if someone buys cheap pre-grated knockoff Parmesan in a bottle, it's because they wouldn't have bought the real deal even if they had known it's better, and not because the knockoff exists. For instance, I know that certain brands of canned mackerel taste a bit better then the brands I usually buy, but I just don't care enough to spend extra cash on it. In the same way, I don't buy generic knockoff cheese because I care about it tasting worse then the real deal, and I consider it being worth the extra money.
        • iso1631 6y ago
          Try selling a Gucci handbag and let me know how your free speech gets on. Which specific free speech law are you talking about?
          • visarga 6y ago
            I'm not sure Gucci would put down a hobby account for trying to make a similar bag. But if they did, I'd say their bags are not worth the price on our freedom of expression.
  • daurnimator 6y ago
    "Feta" is not a protected term here in Australia (where the youtuber is apparently from)
  • makomk 6y ago
    As I understand it, EU Protected Designation of Origin rules are really broad and ban you from even describing a cheese as being in the style of Grana Padano or Parmesan, at least when selling it commercially. They're not just about protecting the consumer but a kind of protectionism. So ever since the protection was extended to the word Parmesan (for a while only Parmigiano-Reggiano was protected) supermarkets here in the UK have all kinds of weirdly generically-named cheeses that are basically cheaper imitations of Parmesan, but they can't describe them as such. There is no longer any generic name for this style of cheese in the English language they're allowed to use.
    • krageon 6y ago
      It is about protecting the consumer, because it prevents a million "grana padano <tiny> alike cheese product </tiny>" type products, like you'd get in markets where these rules don't exist.
      • Reelin 6y ago
        > It is about protecting the consumer Nonsense. Protected origin status is protectionism plain and simple. That's not to say whether it's bad or good, just to call it what it is. Proliferation of confusing low quality lookalikes is prevented by having an enforced criteria and associated labeling requirements. (If the text is too small as in your example then either the labeling requirements aren't sufficient or they aren't being enforced.)
        • chii 6y ago
          > low quality lookalikes and if the low quality is really as low quality as claimed, consumer would stop buying it. But if the "low" quality is actually great quality/good value for money, then consumers will buy it - regardless of the naming. Using law to prevent competition is worse for the consumer.
          • krageon 6y ago
            Please don't use "the consumer will stop buying it" type arguments, there are so many examples in real life where you can see trash will absolutely be bought (mostly by people that don't know the world could be not trash). It is a bad faith argument.
  • cowpig 6y ago
    Except he's not selling cheese, he's explaining how to make it. Which is fair use, and so they don't have anything resembling a case.