Europe's highest court yesterday ruled that a Dutch brewer should in principle be allowed to continue to use its "Bavaria" trademark despite a European Union law that affords brewers in the southern German state exclusive rights to the term Bavarian beer.

The European Court of Justice case came about because the EU law that restricts the commercial use of geographical names linked to food, such as Champagne or Parmesan, was only introduced in the 1990s while the 300-year-old Dutch brewery adopted the name Bavaria in 1928.