References
- “Are Recipes Protected by Copyright Law?”. Kiera Boyd. Fasken. The Angle. Lexology. Published: 2021-07-07. Accessed: 2024-10-31T04:50Z. https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=bc2cc721-99bc-47f0-be4f-727f25421201.
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In [Publications International, Ltd. v. Meredith Corp. 88 F.3d 473 (7th Cir. 1996) ], the court stated that a functional list of ingredients cannot be considered original within the meaning of the Copyright Act.
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In Lambing v. Godiva Chocolatier, 142 F. 3d 434 (6th Cir. 1998) [Lambing], the court stated plainly that recipes are not protected by copyright, completely ignoring the possibility that a recipe could contain enough expressive elements to make it copyrightable.
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Canadian courts have not yet addressed the issue of copyright in recipes […]. Under Canadian copyright law, facts, formulas, and ideas are not protected by copyright. This means that just like in the U.S., recipes which only list ingredients (facts) and the steps that one takes to complete the recipe (formulas) are likely not protected by copyright in Canada.
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Based on current Canadian copyright law and the leading caselaw on the subject in the U.S., a list of ingredients or matter-of-fact instructions regarding the process of creating a recipe is unlikely to be protected by copyright law.
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- keepitquickk. “Is it unethical to use online recipes for my restaurant? Am I stealing someone’s work?”. r/NoStupidQuestions. Reddit. Published: 2021-11-16T16:00:59.196Z. Accessed: 2024-10-31T04:58Z. https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/qvb0gy/comment/hkv7xg6/.
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[…] you can’t copyright a recipe […]
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Wait so does that mean I can legally steal the coca cola recipe?
If you are able to get a hold of the recipe, you could duplicate it without retribution.
If you can do so without some other crime such as breaking and entering, sure. If you can buy a bottle of coke off the shelf and then reverse engineer its formula, there’s not much they can legally do about that.
It depends a bit on what you mean by “stealing”
If you were to break into the coke vault, hack into their computers, threaten or blackmail a coke executive, etc. in order to obtain it, those would all be illegal acts on their own.
But if you reverse-engineered the recipe yourself, or just happened to come across it in some legal fashion you could do pretty much whatever you want with it- publish the recipe, make your own cola and sell it (can’t call it “coca-cola” or “Coke” though because of trademarks and such,) try to sell the recipe to one of Coke’s competitors, etc.
Anyone with the recipe is going to have a hell of a time trying to do anything with it though because one of the ingredients is allegedly still coca leaf extract and coke is pretty much the only entity that is allowed to do anything with the stuff.
Easy. CIA-sponsored Coke competitor. Profits may or may not fund anti communist rebels in South America.
Why do you think Pepsi, Coke, and RC cola have a similar taste profile?
I don’t, other than that they’re all acidic
Its sugar and water and a few other things
but then the professor accidentally added another ingredient
C H E M I C A L X
Well I just learned more than I ever needed to know about Powerpuff Girls lore
Probably not literally steal it, but if you found a copy of it, or managed to make one, noþing would be stopping you from just bottling and selling coca cola as long as you could prove you were making it yourself.