Gordon - This is really interesting stuff, but I think the issue here is not that parmigiano regiano is a PDO (it is, and has been, and its status was not at issue) but whether you can sell a hard grated cheese that doesn't happen to be actual parmigiano reggiano as "parmesan". This all turns out to be a major issue because various grated cheese in a can makers have been fighting hard to convince people that no one could possible confuse their product with the authentic italian product, and yet everyone would be confused if you called it "hard grated cheese", or something. One major producer has already started calling its grated cheese "pamesello italiano", but other producers had decided, apparently, that the parmesan name was worth substantial revenues.

Raffi, Mea culpa. Thank you for the correction. I updated the post to provide the correct holding.

Oh, no trouble. Meant it more as an add on than a correction, because this is a pet interest of mine.