To patent, copyright or trademark?

[Whitley]

My mother has a recipie that she would like to market. Would she need to get a patent, trademark or copyright so that no one could steal her idea? How/where would she do a search to find out if someone has created this particular "delicacy"already and if it is available on the market currently?

She lives in the state of Washington. I live in Nevada. We would probably like to (test) market this product in the state of Texas first. (it's HOT!

Warmest regards,

Whitley Colton

 

[ALawyer]

This is unfortunately not likely to happen. But you ought to read FreeAdvice,com under Intellectual Property to get a grasp of the issues.

Unless it is a novel invention, you can't patent it. That would give broad protection if it were, and you could demand a royalty everytime it was cooked.

Unless her "product" has a special name, she can't do much with trademark -- anything more than protecting the name.

And as for copyrighting it, don't expect her to get rich selling reprint rights.

The best approach is to keep it as a "trade secret" like the formula for Coca Cola.