hey, thats my cocktail recipe!
these days, it’s all about intellectual property and who owns what gems of brilliant thought. this of course, includes cocktails. recipes are not copyrightable; no one can own a recipe. so if you want to keep it, keep it to yourself. as with most perplexing subjects, there is an unspoken set of rules to follow. a great piece in the october AUSTRALIAN BARTENDER MAGAZINE sums it up well: “wether you invent or copy a drink, be open about it. find out the original recipe and stick to it if you use the name or change the name if you change the recipe.” sound advice to be sure. personally, i think it’s always nice to give the original creator credit wherever you can too. happy creating y’all.
They can be trademarked though. We’ve got “take down” letters from some trademark owners for posting their drink recipes, such as the Hand Grenade cocktail trademarked by Tropical Isle of New Orleans.
Looks like they haven’t been enforcing very well recently though; there are several recipes out there. Perhaps we can challenge them on failure to defend now: “the kleenex of drink recipes”
Comment by Jason Birch — January 29, 2008 @ 10:18 am
jason, you busted me! shoddy reporting on my end.
the piece in BARTENDER MAG did say that it was “possible” to copyright a recipe, but virtually “impossible” to win the case in court. essentially, i believe that copyrighting the recipe is a waste of resources…
my own personal lawyer (who won kate spade’s case against the GAP) informed me that recipes were not copyrightable when i asked him a while back…
Comment by Gwen — January 30, 2008 @ 7:49 am
Definitely agree with that.
I find it amusing (bemusing?) that a drink recipe is not copyrightable, but a photo of that drink is… generally the mixologist puts more creative effort into the composition of the drink than that of the photo
Even copyrighting a collection of recipes is marginal in the US… you have to use some kind of non-obvious way of organising it (http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/499_US_340.htm) and even then only the creative components of the collection are protected; the individual recipes are not.
In some areas outside of North America, there’s something known as database right, but that doesn’t help much here…
As much as I admire the creative spirit of our leading mixologists, I appreciate the fact that recipes are Free and Open Source by default, and we all get to benefit from them
Comment by Jason Birch — February 1, 2008 @ 10:42 am
[…] the heels of my intellectual cocktail ownership post, i bring you the latest retardation in intellectual property law… color […]
Pingback by Intoxicated Zodiac Blog » hey, that’s my color! — February 5, 2008 @ 9:18 am
jason,
yes, it is awfully ironic that you can copyright your photo and not the recipe. however, i’m really glad that’s the case! (and i consider myself both a photographer and a mixologist)
cheers to free recipes with credit ; )
Comment by Gwen — February 7, 2008 @ 4:07 am