Did you know that recipes are not copyrightable? It is very challenging to copyright a recipe. That said, I have found that 99.99% of food bloggers and others in the industry give credit where it is due. On that note, I especially enjoy Lillian’s interpretation of my recipes via video on her site Lillian’s Test Kitchen. And kudos go to all the other bloggers out there doing what Lillian does day in and day out.
Unfortunately, sometimes things can go awry when it comes to recipe usage. And here’s an example of that. A couple of months ago, I received a comment from one of my readers regarding a recipe for gluten free pancakes on my website.
Oh, one odd thing… I used a brand of almond flour that I found at a local health food store called Dowd & Rogers and they had the exact same pancake recipe printed on the back of the bag. The only difference is that they said to mix in a blender (instead of saying the Vitamix brand). Not sure if it means anything but thought Elana may want to know…
That was a message from katie h, one of my readers, and I didn’t take it too seriously. However, weeks later, when I compared the two recipes I could see right away what she was talking about.
2 large eggs
¼ cup agave
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup water
1 ½ cups almond flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
grapeseed oil for sautéing
- In a vitamix, combine eggs, agave, vanilla and water and blend on high until smooth
- Add almond flour, salt and baking soda and blend again to incorporate dry ingredients into batter
- Warm grapeseed oil in a large skillet over medium heat
- Pour pancake batter onto skillet
- Pancakes will form little bubbles, when bubbles open, flip pancakes over and cook other side
- Remove from heat to a plate
- Repeat process with remaining batter, adding more oil to skillet as needed
* The funniest part of all this is that this isn’t my best pancake recipe
So, I contacted the parent company, the Neutraceutical Corporation of Dowd & Rogers and this is what I was told:
The law regarding copyrightability of food recipes is very clear: recipes are not copyrightable… In short, your letter alleging copyright protection in a recipe is completely meritless.
This legalese seems to be saying that Dowd & Rogers and their parent company the Neutraceutical Corporation can use as many of my (and your) recipes as they like to sell their products. And that they do not need to give any of us credit.
I have more than 350 recipes on this site and after receiving a letter such as the above start to wonder which one Dowd & Rogers will help themselves to next.
I’m not a lawyer, however, something seems amiss here. Wonder if any of you have run into this as well.
Hannah Handpainted says
This is evil, pure and simple.
I am boycotting Dowd & Roger’s products unless they recant this comment.
charlotte says
I don’t mean to be skeptical, but I have to ask where you came up with your own pancake recipe. Did you make it up or did you get it from somewhere else? It does seem to be on the basic side, but the similarity is quite noteworthy. I don’t know the laws, but if they did use this recipe from your website, they should have accredited it to you. Afterall, most of your recipes involve almond flour, and that is what they are selling! I hope it all works out in your favor!
Ali says
It clearly states at the bottom of your page that credit must be given for use of your recipes and also states that the recipes may not be used for commercial purposes. Sounds to me like that gives you many rights! What they did seems blatantly wrong to me.
Marissa says
There are a few issues here, the first is that you cannot copyright an ingredients list which is correct, the second is that your description can fall under copyright protection, however if the wording is only changed a little bit (like subbing in blender for Vita-Mix) it is no longer the same, and therefore they can use that.
Personally I don’t have an issue with this at all. I put my recipes up because whether or not someone uses one of “my” recipes off my blog or out of a book that I write, they are still using it.
It is pretty much impossible to prove you were the first person in existence to ever come up with any recipe that is on your blog or in your cookbook (and that goes for anyone who “comes up with” recipes). Chances are good it has been done before. I don’t mean for that to sound harsh even though I know it does. And even if you were the first ever to put those ingredients together, the ingredient list still cannot be protected.
I have a recipe that I use for a cafe I work in. I developed it myself after mixing together other ideas. I never blogged the recipe. Then a few weeks ago I see a blogger with almost the exact same recipe on her blog. We never discussed anything about it when we were coming up with our recipes, and yet the final result was that we both use the same recipe for something. That is just how it works.
Bryan says
Below is an excerpt from the US Copyright Website. It appears that under some situation it IS in fact possible to copyright a recipe (as long as it meets their requirements, which requires further inquiry).
It clearly states that a simple list of ingredients is not copyrightable, but in conjunction with the instructions…maybe?
Perhaps the simple change of the word to “blender” is enough to thwart legal action in this case (as it is not verbatim), but something definitely worth looking into in more detail.
“Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.
Protection under the copyright law (title 17 of the U.S. Code, section 102) extends only to “original works of authorship” that are fixed in a tangible form (a copy). “Original” means merely that the author produced the work by his own intellectual effort, as distinguished from copying an existing work. Copyright protection may extend to a description, explanation, or illustration, assuming that the requirements of the copyright law are met.”
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
Rikki says
Elana, I hope this does not result in you taking your recipes off your website. I love your recipes. Your apart of one to two meals a week in my home and I don’t want that to change. I use the internet for almost all my recipes. I am surprised there is no protection for those that have such an amazing gift to create recipes.
deonva says
copyright.gov says this about copyrighting recipes, “Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds, or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However, when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection.” http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html
Jenn says
Wow, that is too close to be from anywhere else. Yeah my understanding was that as long as the directions are rewritten (directions are a form of literary expression), there is nothing illegal about using someone else’s recipe as ingredients are not copyrightable. Either way, that was a pretty poor response from the company. Their less than awesome ethics about attribution and poor response to your inquiry are enough to make me never spend my money on their products.
LinearChaos says
Wow, this is quite an eye opener. I had no idea a recipe wasn’t copy-writable. That’s such a bummer.
This makes me want to be even more diligent about giving credit and linking back to the original recipe creator at my blog.
Sorry Elana.
Emily says
I am so glad you mentioned this. This is one of the reasons I stopped blogging. A recipe of mine was gaining some press, when, another individual (with quite the famous blog) stole my recipe, took new photos of her own and claimed it was hers featuring it on her blog. It became even more popular on her blog and was then printed in magazines as her recipe! I am all about sharing, don’t get me wrong (or I wouldn’t write/read blogs) but giving credit where credit is due, is an absolute must! It was so frustrating to see recipe, after recipe, stolen. I have discussed this with fellow bloggers and they have had the same issues. It is unfortunately, very common.
In any case, so sorry you have fallen victim to this as well and I highly doubt this is the first recipe of yours that someone has swiped. Wish we could do something about this!!!!