STILTON
Stilton is a UK certification trademark for cheese that can only be produced in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Paradoxically, Stilton village in Cambridgeshire — where the cheese was famously sold at the Bell Inn in the eighteenth century — is legally prohibited from producing cheese under the name.
UK IPO Record
- Application Number
- UK00001267276
- Word Mark
- STILTON
- Status
- Registered
- Applied
- 16 May 1986
- Registered
- 7 November 1997
- Next Renewal
- 16 May 2027
- Owner
- The Chairman of The Stilton Cheese Makers Association
- Nice Classes
- Class 29
Brand History & Trademark Analysis
Stilton is a UK certification trademark for cheese that can only be produced in the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and Nottinghamshire. Paradoxically, Stilton village in Cambridgeshire — where the cheese was famously sold at the Bell Inn in the eighteenth century — is legally prohibited from producing cheese under the name. This geographical restriction makes Stilton one of the most legally distinctive food trademarks in the UK.
This geographical restriction makes Stilton one of the most legally distinctive food trademarks in the UK.
Nice Class 29 covers meat & dairy. View all Class 29 trademarks and case studies →
Historical Background
The Stilton Cheesemakers' Association was incorporated in 1936 and registered STILTON as a certification trademark. Stilton received Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) status under EU law in 1996, a protection retained under UK law post-Brexit. In 2013, a bid by Stilton village residents to apply for "Stilton Cheese" as a new protected designation in Cambridgeshire was rejected by Trading Standards — an unusual attempt to reclaim a geographical indicator from which the originating place has been excluded.