Guide Through the Legal Jungle: Are Recipes Protected? Part One.

This two-part blog posting on recipes is inspired by a comment asking me to address some questions that arose during a forum discussion among bed & breakfast owners. In the first part of this blog posting, I discuss the various ways one might protect a recipe. In the second part, I?ll provide general information responding to the commenter?s questions.

It?s not easy to protect a recipe. Legal methods by which one might try to protect a recipe include copyright, trade secret, contract, and patent. Each method has its problems when applied to recipes.

Protecting Recipes via Copyright Law

Copyright is the method people typically turn to first for recipe protection. However, many recipes are not eligible for copyright protection. Copyright law does not protect basic facts and it does not protect procedures and processes. A recipe that simply lists ingredients and basic cooking directions qualifies as a procedure or process and is not protected by copyright law.

In contrast, a recipe that incorporates expressive elements might qualify for copyright protection. These expressive elements might be sug?gestions for presentation, advice on wines, and information on the origin of the dish. In The Permission Seeker?s Guide Through the Legal Jungle, I provide examples of a basic recipe that does not qualify for copyright protection and a more expressive recipe that might qualify for copyright protection. Even if an individual recipe is not copyrightable, a cookbook or a group of recipes may receive copyright protection as a compilation.

What Does It Mean for a Recipe to be Copyrighted?

If a recipe is protected by copyright, you cannot offer a verbatim or substantially similar copy of the written recipe in your own cookbook or website. The copyright does not prevent you from making and offering a dish based on the same recipes ? even if you offer the dish for sale. Likewise, the copyright does not prevent you from extracting the raw information offered by the recipe ? such as the list of ingredients and the preparation instructions ? and using that information in your own recipes.

Methods Other than Copyright to Protect Recipes

Other potential legal methods to protect a recipe include trade secret, contract, and patent law.

Trade Secret. A trade secret is confidential information that provides a competitive business advantage to the individual or company that owns the confidential information. For example, the recipes for Coca-Cola and for McDonald?s secret sauce might qualify as trade secrets. As the name implies, the information must be a secret in order to be a trade secret. A published recipe is never a trade secret.

Contract. Technology companies often rely on contract when they are uncertain whether other forms of intellectual property law protection apply to their technology. People have tried the same contract approach for recipes. The contract might be in the form of the Terms of Service of a website you visit or a Non-Disclosure and Confidentiality Agreement your employer asks you to sign. Reliance on contract law sometimes requires and almost always works better if the recipe is treated as confidential information or is at least distributed to a limited group of people.

Patent Law. Patents apply to inventions and discoveries. Unlike copyright protection, patent protection is available for procedures and processes. Hence, it is possible for a recipe to obtain patent protection. However, most recipes do not meet all the patententability requirements of novelty, usefulness, and nonobviousness. For an in-depth explanation of how unique a recipe must be in order to receive patent protection, see the article on the IPWatchDog website, ?The Law of Recipes: Are Recipes Patentable?. The author?s examples of patentable recipes include fat and egg yolk substitute, nut butter and jelly food slice, and sealed crustless sandwich.

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Samsung opening first Samsung Store in Canada

Android Central

Samsung is moving into Burnaby, B.C. Samsung Electronics Canada has announced construction of the first Samsung Store set to open Summer 2012. As noted in the press release, Samsung is planning to offer plenty of interactive experiences at the new location by offering in-store education programs, labs and hands-on experiences.

"Samsung is excited to bring a new level of retail experience to Canadians," said James Politeski, President of Samsung Electronics Canada. "Our vision is to provide an immersive space where consumers can interact with our products in totally new ways and enjoy unprecedented service levels."

Samsung notes that this is the first Samsung Store to be opened in Canada though, there is no mention of the possibility of other locations opening up. Exact dates for the opening were left out as well, so it'll be something to look forward to for Canadian Samsung fans.

Source: Newswire, via: Mobile Syrup

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Turning Down Heat May Save Much More Than Expected

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Step-parents?

What are the things you hate and love about being a step parent?

I hate not being able to be a part in major decisions even though the kids still partially resident at our house. All because im not a bio parent?? Its my home time and expenses too! Were supposed to count by being supportive, loving, and good role models but not heard?? We dont get credit for all we do.

I love that the kids by THIER choice call me ?mom? and their real mom by her name, they have alot more respect for me as i do for them. We communicate.
Big john- i do apreciate they call me mom but if i see them as my own and hey see me as their mom, if im a pivotal part in their life, i should have some kind of a say somewhere.

HUbby does listen but it gets really fustrating when all three of us have a different opinion. His ex is very threatened by the kids and my relationship, you figure she would be happy that there is someone there that treats them good and loves them.

Best answer:

Answer by big John T
the worst thing about being a step parent is when you divorce if you are lucky as i am you still get to see the child so you said you dont get credit for what you do but then you turn around and say they call you mom and respect you by their choice that should be credit enough for what you do but you are right there bio mother is not going to pat you om the back and give you any credit and you should have some say in what goes on but it has to be done thru your husband the both of you should be talking about the decisions being made

Give your answer to this question below!

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Ellen DeGeneres gains top U.S. award for humor

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Rare 'ring of fire' eclipse to appear on Sunday

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Learn repair & maintenance tips from top auto mechanics

This article has been viewed 26 times.

In this current time, due to the increasing intricacy of cars and other vehicles, most people want their auto mechanics to have prodigious knowledge of car. The part of diesel mechanic have progressed from its new days where the mainstream of the job may be complete among a wrench plus most young boys may be construct a broken motorcycle run without a great deal problem including auto body repair. Select a good mechanic could form a huge variation at what times it come time for expensive overhaul. The proficient rating bike stop have every features of the well-liked PCS-9 good mechanic renovate stands except by means of unique upgrade to formulate the set up, take down, as well as utilize more rapidly as well as super proficient.
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Learn repair & maintenance tips from top auto mechanics

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http://www.rankmymechanic.com/ has list of top auto mechanics having best auto repair reviews.

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Romney: Obama?s reckless spending fans a ?prairie fire of debt?

Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa this afternoon, Romney took President Obama to task for his incessant spending and borrowing:

?Today America faces a financial crisis of debt and spending that threatens what it means to be an American. Here in the heartland you know in your hearts that it?s wrong.? We can?t spend another four years talking about solving a problem that we only make worse every day. When the men and women who settled the Iowa prairie saw a fire in the distance, they didn?t look around for someone else to save them or go back to sleep hoping the wind might blow another direction. They knew their fate was in their hands and so it is today.? A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and our nation and every day we fail to act we feed that fire with our own lack of resolve.?

Romney went on to hit Obama for the so-called stimulus, the ever unpopular ObamaCare and the more than five trillion dollars the Obama deficits have added to the national debt:

?President Obama started his days in office with the trillion-dollar stimulus package ? the biggest, most careless one-time expenditure by the federal government in history.? And remember this: the stimulus wasn?t just wasted ? it was borrowed and wasted.? We still owe the money, we?re still paying interest on it, and it?ll be that way long after this presidency ends in January.

Then there was Obamacare.? Even now nobody knows the exact cost of that new program.? And that uncertainty has done great harm to our economy.? Employers aren?t hiring, entrepreneurs are worried, all because of a massive, European-style entitlement that Americans didn?t want and can?t afford.

Through his own decisions, this President has added more than five trillion dollars to the national debt, which now stands at 15.7 trillion dollars.?

Then Romney promised to lead us out of this debt and spending crisis:

?As president, I will approach debt and spending differently.? My time spent building businesses and leading state government taught me that we need to hold every department and agency to a simple test: If something can be done better and more efficiently outside the federal government, then that?s where it belongs.? Wherever we have the option of returning functions back to the states, to local governments, or, better still, to the private sector, that?s what we will do.? We will make the federal government simpler, smaller, smarter ? and, by the way, more in keeping with the vision of the Framers of our Constitution.?

The excerpts are from Mitt Romney?s speech as prepared for delivery.? The excerpts are from Mitt Romney?s speech as prepared for delivery. The entire transcript is available here.

Last month the Romney campaign released a video highlighting President Obama?s broken promises on spending, deficits and the national debt. You can watch the ?Broken Promises: Spending? video here.

Today the national debt is 15,674,182,767,474.36 or $15.7 trillion, it was when President Obama took office it was $10,626,877,048,913.08 or $10.6 trillion.

In 2004, when the deficit was $413 billion and the national debt was $7,419,244,676,835.15 or $7.4 trillion, Obama said the ?monstrous federal deficit? was an ?enormous problem.? On July 3, 2008, presidential candidate Obama said that adding $4 trillion in debt was ?irresponsible? and ?unpatriotic.? Nevertheless, President Obama added more than $5 trillion to the national debt in three years.

President Obama has promised to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first time at least five times:

  1. February 23, 2009: Obama Pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
  2. February 24, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
  3. May 26, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office
  4. December 8, 2009: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.
  5. February 14, 2011: Obama pledges to cut the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office.

Despite those promises Obama has racked up the largest deficits in U.S. history:

  • FY2009: The federal budget deficit was $1.413 trillion, the highest in U.S. history. (?Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,? Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
  • FY2011: The federal budget deficit was $1.299 trillion, the second highest in U.S. history. (?Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,? Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
  • FY2010: The federal budget deficit was $1.294 trillion, the third highest in U.S. history. (?Monthly Budget Review: November 2011,? Congressional Budget Office, 11/7/11)
  • The CBO projects the deficit at the end of Obama?s first term will be $1.253 trillion, Obama?s fourth straight trillion deficit. (?An Anlysis Of The President?s 2013 Budget,? Congressional Budget Office, 3/16/12)

?

You shouldn?t be shocked by Obama?s failure to reduce the deficit in half by the end of his first term in office. He did warn us there would be ?trillion-dollar deficits for years to come.?

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Frank Oz Talks Little Shop of Horrors, Remakes, and More

little-shop-of-horrors-frank-oz

Image Credit: Everett Collection

To the generation that grew up watching The Muppet Show, Frank Oz is the man behind Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. To the Star Wars fanboys, he?s Yoda. To the under-10 set, he?s Bert and Cookie Monster. For lovers of musical theater, though, he?s the director who brought a nerdy florist and his bloodthirsty plant to toe-tapping life on the big screen. Little Shop of Horrors ? a 1986 adaptation of the Off-Broadway show based on a Roger Corman film of the same name ? holds a special place in our hearts for the music of Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (of Beauty and the Beast fame) and that Mean Green Mother From Outer Space himself, Audrey II. With news breaking of a potential remake and rumors suggesting his movie will finally be re-released with its original ending intact, EW reached out to the filmmaker to learn what is in store for his cult classic, which screens tomorrow night as part of the Brooklyn Academy of Music?s ?A Night of Oz.?

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: Little Shop seems to have grown in popularity over the years. Are you at all surprised by that, given the film?s initial release?
FRANK OZ: Yes. It did only okay when it came out and it?s been nice [to see it become] a cult film. I was surprised, yeah. Although with me, I do my films, I work the very best I can, and I go on, so I don?t think about it too much. I haven?t seen it hardly at all since it opened up. I?ll be curious about the audience?s reaction, because this was made 25 years ago.

What drew you to the project as a potential film?
Initially, I was asked by [producer] David Geffen to do it and I read the script, and I went to the Off-Broadway theater. I said no, I couldn?t do it, because I didn?t really have a way in ? a cinematic way in. And then a few weeks later, when I was working in Toronto on something, I had an idea that got me kind of into the cinematic aspect of it. So when I saw that, I said yes. The script was there already but was rather stage-bound, so I took about a month, a month and a half and rewrote it ? not rewriting any main dialogue, just restructuring it. Taking some songs out and putting some in. Then David and Howard [Ashman] liked it and wanted to go with what I did, and that?s when I started studying the Off-Broadway show. I did a lot of research on how Howard?s show was constructed, and then I had to reconstruct it for film.

One of the things that I love about this movie is the fact that it has Ellen Greene in it, who starred as Audrey in the original production. It seems like so few movie musicals bring those actors onto the big screen. Was it a fight to get Greene for the film, because it?s been said the role was also offered to Barbra Streisand and Cyndi Lauper. Is that true?
Yeah, it?s true. I?m not sure about Barbra Streisand. I?m not sure if it was offered to her, but I know David wanted a star. I have a lot of respect for the people who started the project and [Ellen Greene] was the one member of the cast who I felt was so good that [she?d be] fantastic on film. So David allowed me to have a screen test with her and Rick Moranis in Los Angeles. Rick was ?in? already?so we tested her and I showed it to David and hoped to sell him on her, and I was very happy we got her. She?s amazing. I couldn?t imagine any other Audrey, really. She nailed that part for four years Off Broadway.

Your film has also become legendary for it?s elaborate ?lost? 23-minute ending. That finale preserved the story line from the show where both of the leads die and Audrey IIs take over the world, and it featured amazing sequences of cities being trashed by giant plant monsters. But all of it was ultimately cut from the theatrical release because audiences at the preview screenings didn?t react positively to it.
That?s putting it mildly! Going back to the beginning, Howard and I were in David Geffen?s office and we both wanted to retain the original ending, with the plant winning and the key people dying, and David was against that. He said you can?t do that, but again he knew Howard and I wanted to, so David supported us. The film was completed two years later and we went to San Jose for the first preview and everyone was very excited about it. This was, I think, the most expensive film Warner Bros. had done at that time. For every musical number there was applause, they loved it, it was just fantastic?until we killed our two leads. And then the theater became a refrigerator, an ice box. It was awful and the cards were just awful. They were saying that they hated us killing them. You have to have a 55 percent ?recommend? to really be released and we got a 13.

Wow!
It was a complete disaster. After that San Jose screening, I said, ?Can we just try one more time in L.A. to see if the reaction is different?? David supported me and we did it, and we got exactly the same reaction, like 16 percent or something. Howard and I knew what we had to do: We had to cut that ending and make it a happy ending, or a satisfying ending. We didn?t want to, but we understood they couldn?t release it with that kind of a reaction. [Audiences] loved the two leads so much that when we killed them, they felt bereft. So, Howard rewrote it and I shot it with a satisfying ending. The original one was in color, but when we ripped apart the ending, we had to take out the tape and then we had to reshoot the new ending and then retape that for another preview. So therefore, after the Los Angeles preview, there was no color ending. It didn?t exist because we had to take it apart. So the black-and-white [version] was a dupe, a copy of the original color ending that was made. I?m not sure why we made it, but we made it and that?s the only thing that was left, because there?s actually no color ending left.

NEXT PAGE: Why the 1998 ?Little Shop?? DVD was recalled

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National parks entrance fees waived for troops

http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2012/05/ap-national-parks-entrance-fees-wai...

By Brock Vergakis - The Associated Press
Posted : Tuesday May 15, 2012 8:52:45 EDT

NORFOLK, Va. ? Active-duty military personnel and their dependents will soon be able to enter every national park for free as part of an effort to thank service members and their families for the sacrifices they make, the Interior Department announced Tuesday.

An annual pass will be made available to members of the military free of charge beginning Saturday, which is Armed Forces Day. The America the Beautiful National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Annual Pass ordinarily costs $80. It provides access to more than 2,000 national parks, wildlife refuges and other public lands.

The initiative is being marked with a Tuesday ceremony at Colonial National Historical Park in Yorktown, Va., the site of the last major battle of the American Revolutionary War. The park is nestled in a region of Virginia that plays host to all five branches of the military, including the world?s largest naval base.

?I think when one goes into Virginia and you see all the sites, the Yorktown battlefield and the whole history of the country, it?s important that those who have fought in the tradition of making sure the nation?s democracy and freedom are protected also have access to these wonderful sites there,? Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said in a conference call with reporters in advance of the announcement.

The National Park Service estimates that giving away the passes to service members and their families will result in a revenue loss between $2 million and $6 million. The passes allow the owner and passengers in a single private vehicle access to sites that charge per vehicle. At sites where entrance fees are charged per-person, it covers the pass owner and three adults age 16 and older.

?We collect about $150 million in fees nationwide, so we don?t think that this amount of decrease will be significant to the overall operations of the service,? said Jon Jarvis, director of the National Park Service.

Military personnel can get the passes at any national park or wildlife refuge that charges an entrance fee by showing their military ID. Each family member will also be able to obtain their own pass even if the service member is deployed or if they are traveling separately.

The pass will be accepted at National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and U.S. Army Corps sites that charge entrance or standard amenity fees.

The free pass will be made available for activated members of the National Guard and Reserves, but not for military veterans or retirees.

The effort compliments the Joining Forces initiative being spearheaded by first lady Michelle Obama and Jill Biden, wife of Vice President Joe Biden, to support military families.

?Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to our servicemen and women who make great sacrifices to protect our country and preserve our freedom,? Jill Biden said. ?In recognition of their service, we are so pleased to be putting out a welcome mat for our military families at America?s most beautiful and storied sites.?

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