A consortium of French and Swiss Gruyere cheese makers argued before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit Friday that a lower court’s ruling dooming their mark on the soft, buttery product made by local caseiculturists since A.D. 1100 should be overturned.  

“Everyone knows it’s been made in France and Switzerland since before there was a United States,” said Fross Zelnick Lehrman & Zissu attorney Richard Lehv, who represented the European cheesemakers before the Richmond-based appeals panel.