Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Florida
How does one go about , copyright or patient a food recipe ?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Food recipes may be copyrighted but not patented. There is nothing you need to "do" to get it copyrighted. Thanks to a shortsighted treaty, the obligation to register a work has been abolished and, whether you like it or not, the "work or authorship" is copyrighted - "all rights reserved" - automatically as soon as you create it, forcing authors to go to extra effort to decline the exclusive rights granted by law.
Having said that, recipes that are essentially a list of ingredients and instructions on how to combine them are not protected by copyright. There must be some creative expression. For an example, you might want to take a look at "Copyrighted Recipe for Scrambled Eggs," link available at http://interactionlaw.com/wordpress/2011/05/29/copyrighted-recipe-for-scrambled-eggs/. The Copyright Office has recognized its validity by issuing Copyright Registration Number TX0007357813.
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