The Asturian Cider Association, ASSA, has announced this Friday that the courts have finally ruled in its favor in a final sentence, without the option of appeal, which recognizes the validity of the registration of the ‘iron mold’ bottle as a brand, which implies that it can only be used to market natural cider made in Asturias.
The association points out that the process has been long and hard, but now we are facing “a very relevant sentence”, as the lawyer in the procedure, José María Muñoz Paredes, indicates from the Garrigues office, “not only because it corrects the erroneous decision of the Court and the High Court, which had even denied that this bottle had a distinctive character, when it is well known that everyone identifies it as Asturian natural cider, but also because it fully confirms its validity as a trademark and therefore allows ASSA to protect the sector against any attempt to sell cider from other regions by presenting it in the same bottle.
“Of course, foreign wineries, such as Somarroza, will be able to continue selling their cider, but in another bottle and without benefiting from the work of so many years of Asturian wineries. From a legal point of view, establish doctrine regarding how the prohibitions on trademark registration should be interpreted when it comes to packaging,” says the lawyer.
The Asturian cider bottle, known as the “iron mold” bottle, has been used since 1880, that is, for more than 140 years, to bottle natural cider in Asturias. More than a century later, when the bottle had ceased to be a simple bottle to become an identifying sign of Asturian natural cider, ASSA, the Asturian Cider Association, which represents its producers, registered it as a three-dimensional trademark.
However, in recent times other natural ciders have appeared on the market, made by producers from other regions, some bordering, such as Galicia or Cantabria, and others a little further away such as Zamora or even Levante, bottled with the bottle registered by the Association.
All of them, upon being notified of the registry, ceased their use, with the exception of a Cantabrian winery (Sidra Somarroza) which, ignoring the rights of the Association, continued to use the bottle to bottle its cider. Faced with this situation, the Asturian Cider Association decided to file a lawsuit against Sidra Somarroza for violating such rights. Sidra Somarroza opposed the claim and requested the annulment of the brand on the bottle, arguing that it did not meet the requirements of the Trademark Law as it was made up exclusively of technical elements intended to favor the conservation and pouring of the cider and because it lacked distinctive character. In short, he maintained that the bottle did not serve to distinguish the product.
Both the Commercial Court No. 1 of Santander and the Provincial Court of Cantabria accepted the claims of Sidra Somarroza and declared the nullity of the brand of the bottle registered by the Association, which meant that any person could use it to bottle natural cider.
Faced with this situation, ASSA decided to appeal to the Supreme Court which, in its recent Judgment of July 19, 2023, upheld the appeal filed by Garrigues, recognizing the validity of the registration of the iron mold bottle as a brand, which implies that it can only be used by ASSA wine-makers to market their cider.
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