The ongoing public feud about recipe exclusivity in cookbooks raises a legal minefield, according to a UniSC professor who specialises in intellectual property law in relation to food, plants and agriculture.
UniSC Dean, School of Law and Society, Professor Jay Sanderson
Professor Sanderson comments on the potential legal issues after a stoush between celebrity cookbook authors started with caramel slice and baklava recipes and continues in the media and social media:
- It is difficult to have copyright in recipes. Copyright does not protect ideas or information. Instead, copyright protects the particular expression of words. Those words also need to be original and created with skill, labour and effort. A relatively common list of ingredients and methods is generally not going to have copyright protection. It is more likely copyright will protect a cookbook (eg. design and layout) and author stories and anecdotes.
- That said, most of the discussion has been around plagiarism and unethical behaviour which means it is more in the “court of public opinion” than a court of law.
- What is now interesting is that the resulting comments and commentary could raise other legal issues such as defamation (eg. damage to reputation)
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