Sidra Somarroza wins the lawsuit of the cider bottle

The Mercantile Court No. 1 of Santander does not validate the registration of the bottle of cider made by the Association of Asturian Cider (ASSA).

The complaint filed before the Mercantile Court of Santander by the Association of Sidra Asturiana (ASSA), in the lawsuit against Jesús Gómez Solórzano, producer of Sidra Somarroza -Renedo de Piélagos- for using the model of traditional Asturian bottle-iron mold-that had registered as its property in 2000. It has been dismissed in a ruling in which it urges the SPTO to “immediately proceed to cancel the registration”, which liberalizes the full use of the bottle in litigation, in addition to imposing the judicial costs to the Asturian collective. However, the published judgment is not final and can be appealed before the Provincial Court of Cantabria.

A controversial complaint

The complaint filed by ASSA, association to which belong to the Asturian cidermakers-not all, nor most-has been controversial from the beginning, not only because of the weakness of a legal argument that seeks to make the registration of a heritage asset Asturian with centuries of existence and whose original registration expired more than a century ago, but because the own cider mill of Renedo de Piélagos had requested its inclusion in the Association of Sidra Asturiana to solve the problem; proposal for nothing strange, since it makes Asturian cider -that is, following the traditional Asturian method of making cider- and is settled in a territory that was Asturian until the first third of the nineteenth century (Asturies of Santillana).

On the other hand, the cidermakers not enrolled in this association have also criticized with some harshness the attempts to patrimonialize that registry by ASSA, since they understand that if this were the case they could also act against the Asturian cidermaker that do not belong to that association, with what far from defending the Asturian heritage -as the aforementioned association affirms- what they are defending is their own interest, to the detriment of those who are not associated and who could be forced to stop bottling in the classic bottle of Asturian cider, or to pay rights to ASSA to do so.

Recourse possibilities

In relation to this controversial ruling, ASSA has issued a statement in which it recalls that the ruling is not final and can be appealed before the Provincial Court of Cantabria and that the decision will be taken at the General Assembly of shareholders called for next September 19, where they will decide if they file an appeal.

Likewise, they also reiterate their consideration that “the bottle of Asturian natural cider is an asset of the Asturian cider industry, which is part of our heritage, we are forced to defend it”, suggesting in some way that although they managed to see the registration of the bottle on behalf of its association, would not be used against the rest of the Asturian cider sector that does not belong to it.