can food be patented?

[audreyemma]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NY, NJ

Can a list of ingredients contained in food, a process whereby a certain food is created, or the actual food composition itself be patented??
If not, how does one protect ones recipes?

Thanks,
audrey

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? NY, NJ

Can a list of ingredients contained in food, a process whereby a certain food is created, or the actual food composition itself be patented??
If not, how does one protect ones recipes?

Thanks,
audrey

My response:

Every time I've seen a post similar to yours, I go back to my Coca-Cola example. Back in the early 1930's, Coca-Cola and Pepsi (then, and now, known as "PepsiCo") battled it out in court over the name usage of "Cola" and the "recipe" for the "cola" being made by both companies. As you should also know, Coca-Cola Company goes back to the late 1800's and at the time of the "battle" between these companies, PepsiCo was a fairly new upstart company trying to slice away at some of Coca-Cola's "monopoly", as it were.

Suffice it to say, Coca-Cola lost the battle, fighting these issues all the way to the United States Supreme Court. Basically, the High Court agreed with the lower courts that the word "cola" was sufficiently "generic" (and also described the nut itself) that Coca-Cola could not trademark that portion of it's name; hence, there are many "colas" on the market, and Pepsi Cola is still with us today. As far as the "recipe" was concerned, the High Court, once again, dealt Coca-Cola a slap on the face by deciding, and again, agreeing with the lower courts, that the recipe itself was not subject to patent or copyright. Again, PepsiCo, along with many other "cola" companies, while trying their best to replicate the Coca-Cola flavor, are still with us, but have never been completely successful in replicating the taste of Coca-Cola, despite fervent efforts to do so.

In other words, you can't copyright a "concoction" or a "recipe".

Oh, and also because of that Court decision, the Coca-Cola recipe is still, to this day, locked in a safe within the Atlanta, Georgia Coca-Cola main headquarters.

And that's about the best you, or anyone, can do to protect their recipe.

IAAL

 

[Veronica1228]

IAAL, this is off topic, but your story reminded me of it. I heard that Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, hence the name. Do you know if this is true? I've always wondered.

To the OP: Sorry for the hijack.

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

IAAL, this is off topic, but your story reminded me of it. I heard that Coca-Cola originally contained cocaine, hence the name. Do you know if this is true? I've always wondered.

To the OP: Sorry for the hijack.

My response:

It's absolutely true. Read about Coca-Cola and Dr. Pemberton, the inventor - - who was a pharmacist.

Do a Google search. Interesting reading about our "national drink".

IAAL

 

[Veronica1228]

My response:

It's absolutely true. Read about Coca-Cola and Dr. Pemberton, the inventor - - who was a pharmacist.

Do a Google search. Interesting reading about our "national drink".

IAAL

I'm more of a Yahoo than a Googler, but I looked him up. Very interesting. Thanks!

 

[ENASNI]

Um

Since IAAL already answered the post. Just a little thing off base here too. Pepsi used to be named "Brad's Drink".

 

[divgradcurl]

And just to add a bit to IAAL's analysis, recipes generally CAN be patented, if they otherwise meet the requirements for patentability (utility, non-obviousness, novelty, etc.). Coke chose not to patent their formula because if they did, a) their protection would have expired in 17 years after the patent issued, and b) they would have had to make their recipe public in order to obtain the patent. So Coke decided to maintain the recipe as a "trade secret," which remains protectable potentially indefinitely, as long as nobody spills the secret...

 

[I AM ALWAYS LIABLE]

And just to add a bit to IAAL's analysis, recipes generally CAN be patented, if they otherwise meet the requirements for patentability (utility, non-obviousness, novelty, etc.).

MY RESPONSE: I can't think of a single example where a recipe can be patented for "utility" or "non-obviousness". However, I can think of one example for "novelty" - - a can of navy beans, biscuit gravy, and broccoli florets. Voila!! You got a patentable recipe for "Vomit"! Talk about "blowing chunks."

IAAL