How to protect a recipe? You’re going to have to keep it a secret, because there is no such thing as copyright or trademark or patent protection for a recipe!
“Copyright does not protect recipes, “That are mere listings of ingredients,” However, it can, “Extend to to substantial literary expression – a description, explanation, or illustration, for example – that accompanies a recipe or formula…” What this means is that the basics of a recipe are not copyright protected.” Source: Plagarism Today
Can I protect a recipe using United States law? I’m going to spend the next three minutes discussing this. I’m Angela Langlotz trademark and copyright attorney and I go live here on weekdays to answer your trademark and copyright law questions. If you have questions, drop them into the comments below this video. I will answer them on a future live and tag you so that you know that I responded. So somebody asked me, can I register a trademark or a copyright for a recipe?
And the answer is no. A mere listing of ingredients or a formula to make something — it doesn’t matter whether the something is a food or something else — is not protectable under United States law, either as a copyright or as a trademark or via patent. So you cannot protect those. Coke, for example, has a recipe. It is not protected by any copyright law or trademark law. So how have they protected it for so long? Well, they kept it a secret.
So if you keep your recipe a secret from everybody else and you make everyone who has knowledge of the recipe sign a non-disclosure agreement that they won’t tell a soul about the secret recipe, then you’re protected. But you can’t disclose the recipe as we do when we file a trademark application or a patent or apply for a copyright, you cannot disclose it and then expect that it’s going to be protected. You must keep it a secret. So what aspects of a recipe are protectable?
Well, let’s say that you have a recipe book and you spent a lot of time describing the wonderful dinner that you had when you made this recipe. And there’s a beautiful photograph of the service table, and how you served it, and how you prepared it. And you talked about your guests’ reaction to the meal and their feedback about the meal. That is more than a mere listing of ingredients or a formula. Now, that is literary expression that is protectable by copyright.
So when we say that recipes are not protected, what we’re really saying is, if you just give me a list in the recipe book of how you made it and the ingredients involved and you know, the instructions, that is not protectable by copyright.
But if you spend time creating a creative description, a literary description of the recipe and how how you made it and loved it and your guests loved it and what you served it with and all of that, now that is protectable as creative expression. So just remember that copyright exists to protect creative works. So there is a minimum threshold of creativeness, creativity that is required if you’re going to apply and register a copyright for a creative work.
I’m Angela Langlotz find me online at TrademarkDoctor.net. I’m also on YouTube at video dot TrademarkDoctor.net forward slash YouTube. I’ve got almost 500 videos up there. You can also find me on Facebook at Facebook dot com forward slash TrademarkDoctor. Don’t forget to like and subscribe so that you get all my latest content.
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