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Patent Registration |
A patent is an exclusive right granted for an invention, which is a product or a process that provides a new way of doing something, or offers a new technical solution to a problem. A patent provides protection for the invention to the owner of the patent for a limited period, generally 20years.
HOW TO PATENT A RECIPE???
Home cooks and chefs have been mixing different ingredients to innovate different kinds of food having different taste for thousand of years, so coming up with completely new unique taste is not so easy thing to do. But to patent a food recipe one need to satisfy the following criteria:
• Novel
• Non obviousness
• Useful
If your recipe doesn’t fulfill this above qualifications then it cannot be patented.
FOOD RECIPE IS PATENTABLE-COMPOSITION
Basically in US law it is being stated that “Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefore, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.”In India, patent on food recipe is yet to regularize.
Subject to this condition recipes can fall in this category in two different ways:
• Since they are always useful which involves innovative and creative process
1) Suppose a part of your recipe to make a food product is heating it or cooking it then that step is known as a process. And the method or process used by you lead to some new product which is novel and non obvious then the recipe obtained can be patentable.
2) The processes that make your food recipe patentable include heating, sauting, frying, separating, baking, poaching, cutting, grinding and so on.
• Food recipes involve composition.
1) Food recipes have also their particular formula and technique like the chemical compounds used in the laboaratories.Food recipes include combination of certain ingredients to make something new and different which is novel, non obvious and meet the other discover requirements of patent.
2) For instance, making a hot cocoa mixing different and new ingredients making it novel and tastier to drink making it patentable.
QUALIFICATIONS TO GRANT PATENT
FOOD RECIPE SHOULD BE NOVEL
In legal term, novel means something new, which are not previously, exist. It’s where the trick comes into the picture in the patenting recipes. It’s very difficult to predict whether the particular mixture of ingredients of recipes has been made in someone’s kitchen before. There are a few ways to determine whether your recipe is novel enough to be patented:-
• Firstly, search in the United States Patent and Trademark Office to see if your recipe is already patented.
• Secondly, search in the cookbooks and in the internet for your recipe. If you get that recipe in either place you will be disqualified to get patent due to the existing patent or you can say that particular recipe has already been disclosed as it has already published elsewhere.
• Thirdly, after thorough search if you cannot find an exact duplication of your recipe, you can proceed further to meet other qualification for granting patent to it.
FOOD RECIPE SHOULD BE NON OBVIOUS
If your recipe is easily thought by any layman or having the involvement of techniques that lead to predictable results, then it is high possibility that it cannot be patented. But if your recipe contains a combination of ingredients or technique that leads to non obviousness inference then it may be patentable.
• Food companies easily get patent right over their recipes as because they are able to apply experimental processes ad ingredients that lead to non obvious results. For instance, a recipe which is patentable might be the one that exercise a new formula to give it a surprisingly long shelf life.
• By simply adding a unique and different ingredient to a recipe is not non obvious enough to make it patentable. For instance, a new home cook might have added cinnamon to a donut dough recipe. Although the result might be wonderfully tasty and delicious, but most of the home chefs can foretell the change in the flavor after the addition of the cinnamon.
FOOD RECIPE SHOULD BE DISCLOSED
For getting a patent, the inventor must provide a complete disclosure of the invention. The inventor must teach the best way to convey the public how to make and use it. The recipe must be like something which can be reproduced by any layman with its ordinary skill in the industry. The necessity requirement behind the disclosure is to illustrate the agreement an inventor accepts when applying for a patent. The inventor must handover his secret recipe in exchange for a limited period of patent protection granted for its recipe.