1. ‘Budweiser’ is simply the German form of the adjective effectively meaning ‘from Budvar’. It is comnmon across much of eastern Europe that the popular (if not always the formal) name for a beer is derived from the town it is brewed in. The (slight) implication at the beginning that Budvar is johnny-come-lately to the name is not correct.

2. What Parma, Champagne, Budvar and a (fairly short) list of other products have in common is that they come from a very specific place and can be sold under that name only if they do in fact come from there. For some products that link has effectively vanished – so cheddar cheese is made all over the world and scarcely at all in Cheddar; for others it varies by market, so parmesan cheese can be almost anything in the US, but still has to be something very specific in Europe. The issue is nothing to do with brand names or trademarks. I just don’t see the relevance to AB’s budweiser in that, even if the WTO position were adopted.