Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California
Salad ingredients and dressing
There is a restaurant that sells a commonly called salad. They use specific ingredients and I was wondering if I opened a restaurant and sold the same type of salad whould I be in breach of any patents, or other intellectual property?
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Salad ingredients and dressing
Neither recipes nor names are eligible for copyright protection. If the name is "fanciful" (not a real word), then you may run into a trademark problem. However, if a trademark comes into common usage (like "escalator" or "aspirin" which were once trademarks), there is no longer any trademark protection. If your salad is something like Cobb salad, that would be common usage.
Re: Salad ingredients and dressing
Probably not a patent, but possibly a trade secret problem would arise if you obtained the recipe by an improper means such as being told about it while working there and knowing that it was a secret not the be given to others. If the salad has a distinctive name you should find out if the name is trademarked.
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