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By: Joanne | June 23, 2009 | Category: Home and Family

a chef chopping onions in the kitchenWhat’s your secret recipe? There’s that one dish that you make better than anyone else. Is it your chili, or your barbecue, or your amazing pie?

I really enjoy cooking, but I’m not very creative in the kitchen – I’m just good at picking out good recipes and following them. Sometimes I like to make healthy dishes with fresh vegetables, I also like regional dishes and sometimes just a yummy dessert like Mamie Eisenhower’s chocolate fudge. I don’t mind that I don’t create the recipe; I just like to serve and eat tasty food.

If you’re a creative chef, you can protect your recipes and share your masterpieces with the rest of us. Did you know that you can copyright a recipe? It’s true. Better yet, maybe you’ve got enough recipes to fill a whole cookbook. Let me know when it’s published, I’m always looking for a great, new recipe.

| View Comments [4] | envelope E-mail This Entry | Tags: cook   copyright   food   joanne   recipe  

Comments (4):

blue comment bubble Posted by Daryl on June 23, 2009 at 10:05 AM EDT

I never actually knew this, I just assumed if I made a recipe anyone could steal it.. Since it's just an idea you had and created.. Didn't think of it like that.

This should be good =]

For recipes on sites like:
http://www.ichef.com/

can you not just copy a recipe and change it slightly? or is that against copyright laws..

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blue comment bubble Posted by Joanne on June 23, 2009 at 10:38 AM EDT

Daryl, I don't know about Copyrighting a recipe that is similar to another. Like most legal things, you should probably consult an attorney.

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blue comment bubble Posted by D-Bob on June 24, 2009 at 02:01 AM EDT

The list of ingredients and the amount used cannot be copyrighted. Basically, anything that sounds generic cannot be protected However, if there are unique elements in a recipe, the published recipe can be copyrighted and even trademark protected.

"Rice Salad" could not be protected. "Aunt Jane's All American Supreme Rice Delight" could probably get some sort of protection. It's all in how it's presented.

In addition, the instructions you give for making a dish could be protected if they are not just generic directions. "Preheat oven to 350*" would not be protected if all similar dishes require the preheating. To further extend the protection, you could do things such offer tips to make the creation of the dish easier or spice up the presentation of the dish. Many recipe writers add/change two or more ingredients to a standard dish and call it their own.

And any photographs you take of your creation can be copyrighted.

But remember, even if you have a copyright, it may not be any good. If you apply for a copyright from a recipe you found in Aunt Jane's attic after she died, it could be that she got it out of a publication that had been copyrighted. And the publication of the recipe may have been so long ago , it is now in the public domain. Either way, you lose.

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blue comment bubble Posted by John Keusch on July 06, 2009 at 11:53 AM EDT

On July 4th, as my wife of 36 years and my grandaughter of 7 years old were watching the array of brilliant fireworks in our Norman Rockwell little town, my 7 year old grandaughter stood up and yelled out at the top of her little lungs, HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!! Soon many of the others observers stood and yelled out HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!!
Kind of corny, but a definite HOME RUN in my book

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