Protecting your recipes and brand

摘要

The food industry is a huge business. And whether it's glossy books by household names, signature dishes across chains of restaurants with instant name recognition or experimental creations by molecular gastronomists, there is a huge amount of value in the recipes behind the food we buy and the dishes we consume. It's perhaps unsurprising then that Cripps' food sector clients seek advice on protecting recipes by copyright. Can an organisation involved in food preparation, be it an upmarket restaurant serving a discreet clientele or a valuable supplier in the food service supply chain, protect a culinary innovation using patent protection, or is it better to keep the recipe / process confidential and treat it as a trade secret?