References
- “Are Recipes Protected by Copyright Law?”. Kiera Boyd. Fasken. The Angle. Lexology. Published: 2021-07-07. Accessed: 2024-10-31T04:50Z. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=bc2cc721-99bc-47f0-be4f-727f25421201.
-
In [Publications International, Ltd. v. Meredith Corp. 88 F.3d 473 (7th Cir. 1996) ], the court stated that a functional list of ingredients cannot be considered original within the meaning of the Copyright Act.
-
In Lambing v. Godiva Chocolatier, 142 F. 3d 434 (6th Cir. 1998) [Lambing], the court stated plainly that recipes are not protected by copyright, completely ignoring the possibility that a recipe could contain enough expressive elements to make it copyrightable.
-
Canadian courts have not yet addressed the issue of copyright in recipes […]. Under Canadian copyright law, facts, formulas, and ideas are not protected by copyright. This means that just like in the U.S., recipes which only list ingredients (facts) and the steps that one takes to complete the recipe (formulas) are likely not protected by copyright in Canada.
-
Based on current Canadian copyright law and the leading caselaw on the subject in the U.S., a list of ingredients or matter-of-fact instructions regarding the process of creating a recipe is unlikely to be protected by copyright law.
-
- keepitquickk. “Is it unethical to use online recipes for my restaurant? Am I stealing someone’s work?”. r/NoStupidQuestions. Reddit. Published: 2021-11-16T16:00:59.196Z. Accessed: 2024-10-31T04:58Z. https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/qvb0gy/comment/hkv7xg6/.
-
[…] you can’t copyright a recipe […]
-
Yep. This is why online recipe sites put a whole goddamn personal essay before the actual recipe: if someone scrapes the page and copies it, they’ll scrape the (copyrightable) essay as well as the (non-copyrightable) recipe.
I’m pretty sure they do it to pad out the content so 87 ads will fit, but the scrape theory’s cute too.
Also to increase the length of time you are on the page. Dwell time factors into SEO. It’s really an all of the above thing though.
Wait so does that mean I can legally steal the coca cola recipe?
If you are able to get a hold of the recipe, you could duplicate it without retribution.
Well, aside from it being illegal for any entity except Coke to handle one of the ingredients.
And what ingredient is that? 👀
Coca leaves. They’re de-coked prior to use, but they’re still a controlled substance. Coke has an exception built into the law that effectively makes them the only
countrycompany in the US that can access them (possibly outside of medical, I’m not really sure and don’t care to check). There’s not a lot in the drink anymore as it is, just enough to keep the name.
If you can do so without some other crime such as breaking and entering, sure. If you can buy a bottle of coke off the shelf and then reverse engineer its formula, there’s not much they can legally do about that.
It depends a bit on what you mean by “stealing”
If you were to break into the coke vault, hack into their computers, threaten or blackmail a coke executive, etc. in order to obtain it, those would all be illegal acts on their own.
But if you reverse-engineered the recipe yourself, or just happened to come across it in some legal fashion you could do pretty much whatever you want with it- publish the recipe, make your own cola and sell it (can’t call it “coca-cola” or “Coke” though because of trademarks and such,) try to sell the recipe to one of Coke’s competitors, etc.
Anyone with the recipe is going to have a hell of a time trying to do anything with it though because one of the ingredients is allegedly still coca leaf extract and coke is pretty much the only entity that is allowed to do anything with the stuff.
…one of the ingredients is allegedly still coca leaf extract and coke is pretty much the only entity that is allowed to do anything with that stuff.
Easy. CIA-sponsored Coke competitor. Profits may or may not fund anti communist rebels in South America.
Amazon Kindle is killing right with the cook books. Millions of them
