Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Massachusetts

avoidance of copyright infringement

Please help me with your advice with regard to avoidance of copyright infringement.

There is a cookbook written by an American and published in the Unites States. What I would like to do is to translate recipes from the cookbook, including some tips for making of certain recipes, and put the translated recipes on my personal website, without the author's permission. Translation won't be word-for-word but summarized, but the basic construction of recipis can't be changed as in the nature of cookbook. The author is obscure in my country, Japan, and the cookbook is not published in Japan. Is there any way that I can avoid copyright infringement and introduce his recipes to Japanese cooks?

I would very much appreciate any of your advice. Thank you.


Asked on 8/21/03, 5:14 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Lawrence Graves Coolidge & Graves PLLC

Re: avoidance of copyright infringement

Recipes themselves (i.e., ingredient lists) are not the subject of copyright, so you can do your project without infringing as long as you do not translate narrative instructions, descriptions, etc.

Best wishes,

LDWG

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Answered on 8/21/03, 8:23 am


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