Can we copyright a beer recipe?

[oohlalaw]

This question is for a friend living in Califonia. He works as a brewer at a brewery. On his own time at home, he sometimes works on beer recipes. A recipe that he wrote/created at home last year has become popular with his friends, and he has brewed some at work. His boss likes the beer too and now the boss wants to let another company use it and give it their own label.

Questions:

1. Can my friend copyright his recipe? (No one else knows how to brew it.) If so, which copyright form would he use?

2. Will copyrighting the recipe (possibly) be of any benefit to him (financially, on a resume, or some other way)? In other words, is there any point to copyrighting the recipe?

Thanks.

 

[divgradcurl]

This question is for a friend living in Califonia. He works as a brewer at a brewery. On his own time at home, he sometimes works on beer recipes. A recipe that he wrote/created at home last year has become popular with his friends, and he has brewed some at work. His boss likes the beer too and now the boss wants to let another company use it and give it their own label.

Questions:

1. Can my friend copyright his recipe? (No one else knows how to brew it.) If so, which copyright form would he use?

Yes and no. He could copyright a particular expression of the recipe --- like a nice printed version -- but copyright cannot be used to protect the underlying recipe itself. The actual grain bill, hop types, mash temperatures and times, that sort of stuff, none of that can be protected by copyright.

If we wants to protect the actual recipe, the best was to do it is by keeping it secret.

2. Will copyrighting the recipe (possibly) be of any benefit to him (financially, on a resume, or some other way)? In other words, is there any point to copyrighting the recipe?

Thanks.

No, not really.

EDIT: Also, if he was an employee of the brewery, and came up with the recipe as part of his working as a brewer, the recipe almost certainly belongs to the brewery (or owner of the brewery) anyway. Since they are the owners, they can do what they want with the recipe.

 

[oohlalaw]

-- The actual grain bill, hop types, mash temperatures and times, that sort of stuff, none of that can be protected by copyright. --

This made me think about cookbooks which are copyrightable. Is each individual recipe in a cookbook protected by copyright, or can anyone cherry pick recipes from various cookbooks and then publish and copyright their own cookbook? I doubt it; otherwise publishers could "steal" and reprint recipes from any cookbook they want. So now the question arises . . . if my friend were to compile a book of beer recipes, could he copyright the beer recipes this way?

-- if he was an employee of the brewery, and came up with the recipe as part of his working as a brewer --

I already stated that this is not the case. He has no time to experiment or write new recipes while on the job. He writes and tries recipes at home.

Thanks!

 

[FlyingRon]

The expression of each individual recipe is copyrightable. Things that aren't copyrightable don't get copyrightable just because they're aggregated.

The contents and procedure for making the item isn't protected by copyright. I can write out my own recipe to make the same thing without infringing.

 

[divgradcurl]

-- The actual grain bill, hop types, mash temperatures and times, that sort of stuff, none of that can be protected by copyright. --

This made me think about cookbooks which are copyrightable. Is each individual recipe in a cookbook protected by copyright, or can anyone cherry pick recipes from various cookbooks and then publish and copyright their own cookbook? I doubt it; otherwise publishers could "steal" and reprint recipes from any cookbook they want. So now the question arises . . . if my friend were to compile a book of beer recipes, could he copyright the beer recipes this way?

In a copyrighted cookbook, the layout, the photos, any discussion about cooking or techniques or opinions, and maybe even the selection of the recipes to use in the cookbook are covered by the copyright, and you would be infringing if you copied them. But you could, for example, publish your own cookbook where you did nothing but pick recipes from other cookbooks, copy the "facts" of the recipes -- the ingredients, cooking times, etc. -- and wrote your own verbiage to go along with them. The copyright cannot protect the underlying "facts," the "functional" parts of the recipes.

-- if he was an employee of the brewery, and came up with the recipe as part of his working as a brewer --

I already stated that this is not the case. He has no time to experiment or write new recipes while on the job. He writes and tries recipes at home.

Thanks!

I misread that part. That said, if he is using knowledge gained on the job, or any information gained on the job, there still may be an ownership issue. Probably not, but there is some caselaw that leans in that direction.

If he wants to keep the recipe secret, he should do so. He may piss off his boss and get fired if he does, so he needs to keep that in mind!

 

[oohlalaw]

Thanks very much!