Legal Protection of Recipes

[harveyk]

Hello, I'm working with a chef who is being hired for a project -- create some recipes for a soon-to-be-opened restaurant. Can anyone recommend some legal resources (sites, people, contracts) to help understand the issues? For instance, how does the chef get compensated if the restaurant grows from one location into the next Starbucks? Thanks in advance!

[phatch]

You don't. This is called work for hire. They own the recipe.

http://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ9.html

See also http://cheftalkcafe.com/forums/showt...ight=copyright
for discussion regarding the lack of copyright for recipes.

Phil

[Suzanne]

Wow, thanks, Phil, for posting that link! You have done us all a great service and saved us all time -- just what we need to know. The check is in the mail.

[chefmikesworld]

Being a published chef/food writer, I have fallen prey to people plagarizing my work, in one instance, made it to court only to lose...

The laws concerning our field are pretty iffy when it comes down to interpreting the laws...

All published recipes become public domain issues...bottom line, no questions asked...even our written word becomes a public domain issue if each work is not specifically protected under someones copyright.

I learned this lesson the hard way and was kinda ticked about it, but have now come to accept that it is the way that things are...I mean, I don't really give a hoot about recipes, all my recipes are just thrown together anyway...I understand food, I understand science so all else is superficial...if it comes together and works then great, but behind every great work of art, there are trials and tribulations into understanding the hows and whys...this is inandofitself the secret that lies within the recipes and which is why I choose to write about food and not about recipes...anyone can learn and develop a recipe, but if you understand the technique of why this works and why that doesn't (tempering chocolate is a perfect example) then you have learned way more than a recipe could ever tell you...

Just my two cloves of garlic,
Cheffy