Message 4663 of 20656 in Recipe Exchange

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I am not a lawyer, nor have I ever played one on TV. So the following should 
not be taken as legal advise in any fashion, just simply a reflection of my 
own observations on the issues of copyrights and trademarks.

First off, it is very difficult to claim intellectual property rights on a 
recipe. All that is necessary for somebody to do, is to just slightly change 
the recipe, and it will almost always evade any attempts to prosecute. If you 
happen to pair an unusual cocktail recipe, with an unusual name, then it can 
be easier to prosecute if you find an extremely similar recipe, being used 
with an extremely similar name. But all that is often necessary, is for the 
perp to change the name of the drink enough to avoid conflict, but will still 
retain familiarity with customers.

And chances are that unless you are some nationally known chain, with 
marketing dollars to make a particular drink with a particular name well known 
amongst your customers, the name is irrelevant to anybody wanting to copy it.

Add to this the fact that in order to protect your interest in retaining your 
"intellectual property", it is up to you to actively persue and prosecute 
people who abuse/misuse your claim.

You've all heard stories of how "some big corporation" will come down hard on 
websites or individuals who are using their brand. For example, the "Hand 
Grenade" is a registered drink name/recipe by the New Orleans restaurant 
Tropical Isle. Paramount is well known for shutting down "Star Trek" websites. 
And there are countless other examples of big companies coming down hard on 
the "little guy" for improper use of their "property". It is important to 
understand that this is not just some macho power trip by these companies. 
They are legally required to do this. If they don't they would lose their 
rights to those trademarks. These companies spend a lot of money on lawyers 
who spend all of their time performing "due dilligence" at trying to find 
people who might be violating their copyright/trademark and sending them cease 
and desist letters. And, if you are wanting to truely own the copyright to 
something as flimsy as a cocktail recipe, then you too would have to perform 
similar due diligence at making sure your property was not being 
misappropriated.

-Robert
 www.DrinkBoy.com