Which elements of a recipe are protected under IP law?

[SteveM77]

Hi, I'm starting a food delivery business where I will sell recipe kits including ingredients measured out and an instruction card telling users how to prepare and cook the ingredients using words and photography. In the early days before I can employ chefs, I will want to copy recipes I have seen in recipe books, on blogs and from other food delivery firms. I've done some reading around copyright of recipes and it seems to be permissable to copy them but I wanted to ask some specific points to anyone who knows on here:

- I believe that copying the recipe itself (the ingredients used and the method of preparation) is OK to do in principle. Is this correct?
- What about the descriptive copy used by the originator of the recipe ie the name of the dish, the actual words they use to describe it and the copy used to instruct the chef how to prepare it. Will copying and pasting these be an infringement? And if so would I avoid that by rewriting them using my own copy (but describing the same processes ie cooking times etc)
- I'm assuming it would be an infringement to use the photography the originator used to show the finished recipe and to visualise the steps to cook it. Can you please confirm?

I'd be very grateful for anyone with IP law experience to offer their thoughts.

Thanks,
Steve

 

[The Byre]

No, yes, yes.

 

[The Byre]

In other words, the recipe is copyright protected in its entirety. Every little bit of it. Pictures, text, measurements, the lot!

Things we all know, like how to boil an egg or how to sir in olive oil into egg yokes to make a mayonnaise base are not protected, but specifics, such as how many grams of mustard or salt to add, are obviously protected.

If somebody sat down and worked out how to get a unique and delicious dish and that somebody was not you, you cannot use that information.

 

[Ian J]

In other words, the recipe is copyright protected in its entirety. Every little bit of it.

The Guardian disagrees with you https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2006/mar/24/foodanddrink.uk

 

[The Byre]

That article discusses a completely different issue, that of copying a dish. A recipe is a written work and that written work is copyrighted.

It is the difference between seeing a photo of a lake with a boat on it and rushing out and going to the same lake and making a very, very similar photo - and simply using the original photo and claiming it as my own.

 

[Deleted member 59730]

The whole of a recipe as written is copyright especially the instructions. The list of ingredients are probably copyright protected. When the UK switched to metric measures the way in which cookery writers listed ingredients was definitely copyright although some writers, there were fewer then, agreed between themselves to share solutions.

 

[SteveHa]

If somebody sat down and worked out how to get a unique and delicious dish and that somebody was not you, you cannot use that information.

So if it's unique and horrible?

 

[MikeJ]

Have you been to ours for dinner??

 

[Newchodge]

Sarah Brown wrote Vegetarian Kitchen in 1984. In it she had the most marvellous recipe for cashew nut and mushroom roast, which I cooked fr Christmas dinner for my vegetarian brother for years. I lost the book years ago.

About 10 years ago I wanted to cook the same dish for my vegetarian niece (by marriage). As I could not find the cookbook I looked on line and there it was. Word for word. I looked for it again this year and there are numerous versions of it on line. None acknowledge Sarah Brown. They are all identical.

How does that work?

 

[Gecko001]

Why not cook it a few times yourself and try to "improve" on it by changing the quantities slightly or adding something. Otherwise you are just stealing. .

 

[Newchodge]

duplicate

 

[Deleted member 59730]

About 10 years ago I wanted to cook the same dish for my vegetarian niece (by marriage). As I could not find the cookbook I looked on line and there it was. Word for word. I looked for it again this year and there are numerous versions of it on line. None acknowledge Sarah Brown. They are all identical.

How does that work?

The people posting the recipe online are probably thinking that no one is looking after Sarah Brown's copyright. The book was published by BBC books who are notorious for what is known as "Rights Grabs" but are so disorganised that the probably don't even know they own the copyright.