Exploring Culinary Intellectual Property Protection: Safeguarding Creations and Unauthorized Transfer of Related Knowledge under Traditional IPR

Abstract

Great effort and time go into the careful selection of ingredients, the formulation of the cooking procedures, and the creation of an engaging and attractive appearance for a culinary item. Given this reality, it is not surprising that recipes, food designs, and other culinary innovations have the potential to be safeguarded through diverse forms of intellectual property safeguards. Culinary innovations and recipes surely may be considered original and creative expressions, yet somewhere fail to meet entirely the criteria for copyright protection. Intellectual property safeguards already exist for a range of items, such as crackers shaped like dinosaurs, hamburger patties with unique shapes, cupcakes featuring swirled icing, and hot dogs adorned with crisscross cuts. However, unprotected and unauthorised use of knowledge, and infringement of protected knowledge have all given rise to a host of issues that need careful examination. This paper aims to advocate intellectual property protection for culinary creations while bringing out the flaws of the judicial precedent set, that completely omits the idea of protecting any recipe to date. The research paper concludes that the grounds on which the recipes are denied protection are vague, and protection can be extended to the recipes by incorporating certain flexibilities in the current copyright regime.