Legal Question in Intellectual Property in Texas

The option for you to protect your cookie recipes is that of trade secret. The amount of legal protection to be afforded will be directly related to the measures you take to protect your secrets. If you're very careful, you get more protection. Less careful, less protection. No, you cannot handle trademarking and protection under the same application. Trademark protection depends upon your USE of the trademark. Whether you can get the protection in the first place depends on your trademark not being "confusing similar" to another trademarked product. It gets a little more technical and complicated, but this is enough to give you an idea. In any event, cookie recipes are not patentable and you probably wouldn't want that kind of protection anyway because it can cost you from about $15,000 on up. If you're serious about all of this, you'll need to get with an attorney to help guide you through things. Hope this helps.

As a Franchise Attorney I agree with the other attorney answer. You can't protect a cookie recipe by patent or copyright (in fact, it would be dangerous to copyright the recipe). There are many legal issues in the IP (Intellectual Property) area of the law, and this is definitely not a do-it-yourself project. Consult with a IP or franchise attorney in your area for specific advice.

Mr. Franchise - Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D.

Franchise Foundations, a Professional Corporation