Secret recipe.....a hypothetical!

frag420

Say a restaurant had something on their menu that was unique to them. For arguments sake say it was a sauce they invented using ordinary kitchen ingredients available in any local supermarket. This restaurant would be well known within the local and surrounding areas for this unique sauce. No other place has it, it's 100% unique to them.

Now if someone were to recreate this sauce independently and start to use it in their restaurant are they liable for anything? Could the other place take action about someone using their recipe commercially? What if said person wanted to bottle it for sale?

Thanks

frAg

srsly78

Patents can apply to foodstuffs I believe. No patent no protection I would imagine.

234

There is no intellectual property in a recipe. So unless you came across in circumstances of confidence, or you are suggesting that your product is theirs (passing off) then there should not be a problem.

However, since this is a business you should seek legal advice so that somebody who has all of the facts infront of them can advise you properly.

gozunda

frag420 wrote: »

Say a restaurant had something on their menu that was unique to them. For arguments sake say it was a sauce they invented using ordinary kitchen ingredients available in any local supermarket. This restaurant would be well known within the local and surrounding areas for this unique sauce. No other place has it, it's 100% unique to them.

Now if someone were to recreate this sauce independently and start to use it in their restaurant are they liable for anything? Could the other place take action about someone using their recipe commercially? What if said person wanted to bottle it for sale?

Thanks

frAg

Something like this one ?


http://touch.boards.ie/thread/144087

frag420

gozunda wrote: »

Something like this one ?


http://touch.boards.ie/thread/144087

Ha ha similar but way tastier!!

FreudianSlippers

234 wrote: »

There is no intellectual property in a recipe. So unless you came across in circumstances of confidence, or you are suggesting that your product is theirs (passing off) then there should not be a problem.

However, since this is a business you should seek legal advice so that somebody who has all of the facts infront of them can advise you properly.

A recipe with directions could be protected by copyright law. A mere listing of ingredients obviously cannot, but the directions on how to implement those ingredients would be.

Of course, this would prevent other authors from publishing analogous directions but would not prevent people from making the dish.

Going back to the question at hand, there is a reason recipes are kept 'secret' - because if they get out, there is nothing to stop competitors from copying them.

They key issue there, and a recent example, is when you create something new (i.e. the Cronut™) and people start not only making them, but also calling them Cronut™. If I got KFC's secret recipe and started selling it, obviously even though it is KFC's secret recipe, I can't call it that.