Oh I understand Appelation d'Origine Contrôlée perfectly thanks. It's not like I didn't live in France for 30 years or anything.
Champagne is one of the worst abusers of AOC. It attacks products with "champagne" in the name that no one on earth could possibly mistake for Champagne or even fizzy wine or come to that even a drink. At that point it's no longer about AOC and that's why I choose the term trademark.
Now look up Laguiole and see why there's one law for the rich and one for the poor when it comes to trademarks/AOC. Not only is the village denied exclusive use of the Laguiole name for the well-known knife design that originated there, it is not even allowed to use its own name for anything except that specific knife.
Meanwhile elsewhere in France dairies are merrily making Gruyère, Emmental, and Cheddar cheese.
I am not American. I hate a lot of IP nonsense that comes out of the USA. But they are not the only bad boys as someone in this thread would have it.