COON is the trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 of a cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese

Cheddar cheese is a relatively hard, yellow to off-white, and sometimes sharp-tasting cheese, produced in several countries around the world. It has its origins in the English village of Cheddar in Somerset....

 produced by the National Foods

National Foods

National Foods is an Australian company and subsidiary of holding company Lion Nathan National Foods , wholly owned by the Japanese Kirin Holdings Company Limited, and consequently the Mitsubishi Group....

 company in Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

. It was first launched in 1935 by Fred Walker

Fred Walker (entrepreneur)

Fred Walker was an Australian businessman and founder of Fred Walker & Co. The company is best known for creating Vegemite, a food paste and Australian cultural icon....

.

The Coon cheese-makers

The cheese is said to be named after its American creator Edward W. Coon (1871–1934) of Philadelphia, who patented a method, subsequently known as the Cooning process, for fast maturation of cheese via high temperature and humidity. Former manufacturer Kraft

Kraft Foods

Kraft Foods Inc. is an American confectionery, food and beverage conglomerate. It markets many brands in more than 170 countries. 12 of its brands annually earn more than $1 billion worldwide: Cadbury, Jacobs, Kraft, LU, Maxwell House, Milka, Nabisco, Oscar Mayer, Philadelphia, Trident, Tang...

, and later Dairy Farmers

Dairy Farmers

Dairy Farmers is one of the largest and oldest dairy manufacturers in Australia, established in 1900, supplying products to local and international markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Kirin Holdings Company, Limited of Japan, via its subsidiary National Foods, acquired the...

 and National Foods

National Foods

National Foods is an Australian company and subsidiary of holding company Lion Nathan National Foods , wholly owned by the Japanese Kirin Holdings Company Limited, and consequently the Mitsubishi Group....

, have vigorously defended the trademark.

E. W. Coon was the grandson of Amherst Coon (1795–1877), a farmer born in Russia, New York

Russia, New York

Russia is a town in Herkimer County, New York, United States. The population was 2,487 at the 2000 census.The Town of Russia is located in the northwest part of the county...

, who married Sally Betsey Treat in 1822. His sons Mattison (b. 1823) and Ephraim Coon (b. 1832) were described in 1893 as having been in the butter and cheese business together at 29, South Water Street, Philadelphia, for more than thirty years. Ephraim's son Edward Willie Coon was born on July 30, 1871, and had taken out at least one cheese patent

Patent

A patent is a form of intellectual property. It consists of a set of exclusive rights granted by a sovereign state to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for the public disclosure of an invention....

 by 1912.

In August 1923, The Journal and Republican of Lowville, New York

Lowville (town), New York

Lowville is a town in Lewis County, New York, United States. The population was 4,548 at the 2000 census. The town is near the center of the county and is southeast of the city of Watertown. Lowville contains a village also named Lowville, which is the county seat. The town of is named after...

, reported the sale by "E. W. Coon of Philadelphia, maker and shipper of cheese", of five milk plants in villages around Watertown

Watertown (town), New York

Watertown is a town in Jefferson County, New York, United States. The population is 4,470.The Town of Watertown is located in the southeast part of the county...

 to the Dairymen's League Co-operative Association, Inc. It also stated that

From 1933 a cheese was marketed as Red Coon, and was coated with red wax

Wax

thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...

. The wax was later replaced with cellophane and the red stripe in the logo is a residual reference to the original packaging.

After selling his processing plants, Edward W. Coon became a cheese dealer in Philadelphia. He died in 1934, aged sixty-two.

Disagreement

The accuracy of Dairy Farmers

Dairy Farmers

Dairy Farmers is one of the largest and oldest dairy manufacturers in Australia, established in 1900, supplying products to local and international markets such as Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Kirin Holdings Company, Limited of Japan, via its subsidiary National Foods, acquired the...

' account of the origin of the brand has been challenged. Anti-racism campaigner Stephen Hagan

Stephen Hagan

Stephen Hagan is an Australian author, activist and campaigner against racism. He is also a newspaper editor, documentary maker, university lecturer and former diplomat....

 has said that he has been unable to find evidence that Edward Coon was a famous cheese maker, contending that the name came instead from the black wraparound in which it was originally sold. In 2008 he was reported to be "questioning the makers of Coon cheese about the origin of the brand name". Hagan has said that Edward Coon was an obscure factory hand who was induced to subscribe his name to the patent for cheese manufacture some time after the brand had been in use.

In popular culture

British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 stand-up comedian Stephen K. Amos

Stephen K. Amos

Stephen Kehinde Amos is a British stand-up comedian of Nigerian origin. A regular on the international comedy circuit, he is known for including his audience members during his shows...

 regularly performs a skit on Coon Cheese as part of his live show, due to the word "Coon" also being an ethnic slur used for black people

Black people

The term black people is used in systems of racial classification for humans of a dark skinned phenotype, relative to other racial groups.Different societies apply different criteria regarding who is classified as "black", and often social variables such as class, socio-economic status also plays a...

.