AP File Photos Tillamook Country Smoker, which has marketed jerky under the Tillamook name since 1976, is one of a half-dozen businesses that received a "cease and desist" letter from the Tillamook County Creamery Association, asking that the business remove the word "Tillamook" from its logo.

PORTLAND - Makers of a nationally known cheese will not be able to prevent a local jerky producer from using the name of the coastal town they both share, a federal judge ruled Friday.

In a judgment delivered just two hours after oral arguments began, U.S. District Court Judge Michael Mosman said the Tillamook County Creamery Association waited too long to object to the use of the word "Tillamook" in the brand name of Oregon's largest jerky maker.

The jerky will continue to be known as "Tillamook Country Smoker," said Mosman, the name the jerky maker has used since 1976.

But in a concession to the well-known creamery, Mosman also ruled that the jerky maker was out of line in its recent use of the label "Tillamook Jerky" on its beef nugget packages and its Web site.

"We're ecstatic," said Helen Gienger, one of the three owners of the smoker, the ninth-largest jerky producer in the nation.

She's happy to drop Tillamook Jerky, she said, agreeing the two-year-old test name was "probably a mistake."

For nearly 92 years, the makers of the award-winning Tillamook Cheddar shared the Tillamook name with other businesses, as well as a county, a city, a bay, a river - and the large jerky operation.

Creamery officials said that they had no problem with the smoker until approximately 1997, when the smoker began to aggressively market to grocery superchains like Albertsons, where its cheese has long been sold.

"The markets converged and collided," said Jim Edmonds, the creamery's lead attorney.

But Mosman disagreed, saying the smoker's change in business plan was not a large enough shift to justify the creamery's objections.

Under federal law, it is up to a trademark owner to stand up for their brand. If they allow the name to be shared for an unreasonable amount of time with another business, they can no longer claim an infringement.

The only exception, said Mosman, is if the second business undergoes a dramatic shift.

For example, Exxon for years shared its tiger logo with Frosted Flakes. But when the petroleum company tried to extend its brand to convenience stores and sell food under the Jolly Tiger image, courts ruled that Kelloggs' mark had been usurped.

The case in Tillamook is not as extreme, said Mosman, since both the cheese and the jerky have been in national stores for more than a decade.

Mosman also noted that for 25 years, the meat and the cheese had been a model of cooperation.

As late as 2002, the jerky was one of the highlighted items in the creamery's visitor center and appeared in their catalog under the name "Tillamook Sausage."

"In one year, we sold 750,000 sticks of pepperoni. It was the No. 1 selling product in their visitor center," said Bob Crossley, son of Dick Crossley, co-owner of the smoker.

Jim McMullen, CEO of the creamery, said the cooperative had not yet decided whether to appeal Mosman's decision.

He called the judge's decision to ban the "Tillamook Jerky" name a "victory."

But in a letter released by the creamery hours after the ruling, McMullen wrote that, "Judge Michael Mosman allowed Tillamook Country Smoker to continue using its full name, Tillamook Country Smoker, even though that name infringes on the Tillamook County Creamery Association trademark."

In April, the two sides will reconvene to begin hashing out the next round of trademark issues.

"The next big question is who gets to trademark the Tillamook cheeseburger," said Peter Staples, an attorney for the jerky marker.

Last fall, McDonald's launched a test of a Tillamook cheeseburger in 200 outlets in Washington. A launch in Oregon is under way, but the smoker said that ventures too close into their corner of the meat industry.