Good news for Made in Italy: Parmigiano Reggiano has won its legal battle against Kraft. In Ecuador Kraft will not be allowed to use the wording Parmesan Cheese. According to the local office that deals with intellectual property rights, Kraft cannot register the trademark Kraft Parmesan Cheese because it has too many similarities with the protected designation of origin.

In doing so, Kraft would be "taking unfair advantage of the reputation, quality and other characteristics" of the PDO due solely to the geographical environment where it is produced. This ruling sets an important precedent with regard to Geographical Indications in America as it underscores the importance of the link between PDO, product and production territory.

According to the offices in charge, the name Parmesan outside the European Union is not as generic as claimed by several multinational companies. The European Court of Justice itself in 2008 had established that only Parmigiano Reggiano DOP cheese can be sold in the EU as Parmesan as this term represents the translation of the word "Parmigiano".

So within the EU using the word Parmesan to refer to hard and grated cheeses that are not part of the PDO is a violation of the law. Only this rule does not apply outside the EU. According to the Consortium, outside the EU, fake Parmesan has a turnover of 2 billion euros, for a total of 200 thousand tons of product (15 times the volume of real Parmigiano Reggiano that is exported).