Copyrighting a Dessert
 

As everyone knows, my sister will be marrying on December 31. The pastry chef has come up with a delicious torte, everyone who has tasted it loves it. A neighbor suggested that the torte be named after me since I'm the one who suggested the apricot/walnut and plum vinegar mixture. Of course there's more to the recipe than that, but I don't want to bore you. Now the lady from across the street has suggested that we protect the recipe. Does anyone know if there's anyway of copyrighting/patenting the recipe?

Not a chance since it's prior art. There's nothing original in a torte. How are you gonna copyright 2c butter, 2c sugar, 1T vanilla?

Kuan this is a very special torte, my ingredients and the chefs know-how. If I'm not mistaken, Sacher Torte and Imperial Torte are copyrighted? I think there was a big legal battle between the Sacher and Imperial Hotels over the torte and that's why Sacher had to change its ingredients slightly.. I wouldn't be surprised if Esterhazy and Linzer are too.

What you are copyrighting is the actual words, ie., the ingredient list and method, not the thing itself. You cannot lift the recipe wholesale and republish it without permission, but anyone can make the torte itself. OTOH, someone can change the order of your words, write their own description, and still have the "same" recipe.

Oh I see, thank you very much Kuan. So, that's why the Imperial Torte kind of reverses ingredients of the Sacher Torte lol. It will be nice though having a dessert named after me on the menu.

Would that be a precedence under..."torte" law"?? :rolleyes:

Dude...



:D

Copyrights, patents, trade marks, etc. won't protect you directly. You have to be willing to spend $$$ and sue anybody who copies whatever it is you're trying to protect. If you don't back it up, the law assumes you have abandoned your rights and the invention/trademark/etc becomes part of the public domain.

Bottom line - unless you plan to make real money from your venture don't bother.

Isn't the part where you get into trouble the point where you actually collect cash for the item that you've copied?

I.E.: If I decided to "market" a car that looked like a Benz, drove like a Benz and even sported the "star" of a Benz, I could do just that, but I'd get into deep water the minute I collected "one cent" on the sale of said vehicle?

Correct?

No, you would be in trouble the moment you took the car out in public. Trademark Violation.

If someone tried to steal your Torte recepie would that be a Torte tort? What if it as a new steak tartar recipie? Would that involve a tartar tort?

I guess if somebody tried to appropriate your copyrighted tattoo design, you'd have a tattoo tort.

Where would it all end?