How hard to patent a recipe?

Sanaa T...

Hi there,

You may choose to patent a recipe should it fulfill all the criteria of patentability requirements such as;
If the recipe falls under the subject matter of Section 35 USC 101
If the recipe fulfills the Utility requirement under Section 35 USC 101
it fulfills the criteria of Novelty requirements under Section 35 USC 102
fourthly, the recipe must be non-obvious such as the criteria under 35 USC 103
and lastly there is an adequate description requirement met as under 35 USC 112.

The link to all these sections is as given here: http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/35/pIIch10.html

You may not want to patent a recipe though since the term of a patent lasts 20 years after which it becomes public domain. Keeping a recipe a Trade Secret is a far better way of going about it for eg: the way KFC, Coca-Cola and Pepsi have kept their product formulae secret.

Though one viable form of protection of a recipe is to copyright it. This can be done if the recipe fulfills the need of "Substantial Literary Expression". Simply listing ingredients and/or listing out directions to make the recipe would not fulfill this criteria and hence the recipe may not be copyrightable as a result.

The recipe must contain an original form of expressing an idea.

Should you need more help in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us on (877)-794-9511 Monday to Friday 9 am to 6 pm OR mail us at customer.service@patentexpress.com