TOPIC:

"sbillings":2164uqkv wrote: I don't think you can actually copyright a recipe.[/quote:2164uqkv]You can, but if someone simply follows it, that doesn't count as copying. Jesuitical? Moi?

[size=75:2164uqkv](And because I'm not quite being pedantic enough, "copyright" is not a verb. It's something that is assigned automatically by default, so it's impossible to "copyright" anything.)[/size:2164uqkv]

You can't patent a recipe either, but if you've invented some process that's used in the recipe you [i:2164uqkv]can[/i:2164uqkv] patent that.

"TheBeerNut":3cqebzbb wrote: (And because I'm not quite being pedantic enough, "copyright" is not a verb. It's something that is assigned automatically by default, so it's impossible to "copyright" anything.)[/quote:3cqebzbb]

I beg to differ: <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright">dictionary.reference.com/browse/copyright

Yeah fair enough -- that usage does exist, but it's idiomatic. There is no actual action or process that "copyrights" something.

Just pedanting back at you <!-- s:lol: --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_lol.gif" alt="" title="Laughing" /><!-- s:lol: -->

I should probably have been clearer in my last post. What I meant was that while you can write a recipe or indeed an entire recipe book and have that fall under copyright, the recipes themselves are not protected in that anyone who feels like it can use the recipe and sell the results.

So then the general consensus is to keep the really good ones a trade secret?

Yep. It's why this stuff[/url:1yzwyrrw] tastes awful, I guess.