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.
Heather says
wow! i always give credit on my blog unless it is truly something I come up with without looking at a recipe. Usually I see something and adapt it to be healither or to our tastes. I don’t usually have much for originals, but it does seem that you do a lot of experimenting and I can’t believe they can’t even give you credit where credit is due!
Dana says
Greetings!
While I support you in your concern on this subject, I must say that from experience, I know that enforcing a copywright on a recipe is next to impossible. With the change of a word or direction, the recipe is different. If one carefully compares the two recipes one will see that there are subtle differences, i.e. grapeseed oil for sauteing vs oil for griddle and in a Vita-Mix vs in a blender. Yes, we all know they mean the same thing but this changes the recipe. Hence, the difficulty in enforcing a recipe copywright.
Thank you for all that you do to make this world a better place! This is the positive of you! You don’t need them to give you credit! Blessings~
Spice Lovely says
I’m so sorry that happened! If it makes you feel any better, a while back I recreated your Pumpkin Cranberry Upside Down Cake on my blog. (http://spicelovely.blogspot.com/2010/01/pumpkin-and-cranberry-bliss.html) But I did my best to give you the original credit, since it’s a delicious cake and became an instant family favorite. Even if they did take your recipe, your recipes have touched and helped many, many people. Thank you!
Denise says
Wow! I never would’ve thought that companies could take and use recipes without permission. Or that they don’t even have to give you credit.
Daisy says
Hi Elana.,
For the folks that are planning on boycotting the company – here are their many different brands:
“Nutraceutical is one of the nation’s largest manufacturers and marketers of quality branded nutritional supplements sold to health and natural food stores. Nutraceutical sells branded products under the brand names Solaray®, KAL®, Nature’s Life®, Natural Balance®, NaturalMax®, VegLife®, Premier One®, Pioneer®, Sunny Green®, Zand®, Natra-Bio®, bioAllers®, Herbs for Kids®, NaturalCare®, Natural Sport®, Supplement Training Systems™, FunFresh Foods™, ActiPet®, Action Labs®, Thompson®, Montana Big Sky™, Living Flower Essences®, Life-flo® and Larenim® to health and natural food stores in the United States.”
I will make sure that I never purchase any product from them. The letter they sent was a veiled ‘threat’ basically taking the offensive to ‘claim’ their rights. Its a legal trick to keep you from trying to sue them. This type of business practices is unethical even if its legal. If you decided to take action – I know a number of very good intellectual property attorneys in Utah.
If anyone is interested in writing this unethical company a letter (I am) here’s their address: Nutraceutical Corporation, 1400 Kearns Blvd., Second Floor, Park City, UT 84060.
Good luck!
Daisy
maris says
Very interesting! I always wondered about that too. I give credit for my recipes when I duplicate something I found elsewhere, but I always wonder if there is another recipe out there, for, say, marinara sauce that closely mimics mine and could be interpreted as “recipe theft” by accident!
Kate C. says
That is so uncool.
Mom Steiner says
The obvious answer as to what to do when we, your supporters, know that someone has taken your recipe and pass it off as their own, it to boycott that company. That means spreading the work that Dowd & Rogers lack decency and honor and is a company not deserving or our business. The social network is endless. Spread the word.
Jan Buhrman says
I am inspired by bloggers and recipes and as a serious cook, love to share recipes and give credit. We were so inspired by Elana’s almond mayo, that it forced us to think about all of our staples in our kitchen and how could we make them ourselves. Credit can only bred connectedness!
sandari says
I can not understand the hysteria over all this.
As stated there is no copyright on a recipe.
My Great grand-mother passed on a recipe very much like this one only with the use of honey it has been in our family for about 120yrs and came from Spain.
Good grief it is stupid do you people have nothing better to do other than to get pathetic over this, do you not realise that you wouldn’t even have your daily bread if it wasn’t for the generations before you spreading the recipe around.
Grow up the lot of you and stop being so ridiculous over a recipe.
Yes you do have a great site, but did you not think that for one minute that if you put things out there in the world for the public to see that there wouldn’t be someone who would claim them for their own or that someone else might actually have thought it up before you.
People are dying in the world for lack of food and you lot are getting in a twist about a recipe!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sharon says
Sandari, you have a point about other grave needs in our world but the way you demean those upset over this lack of respect for Elana’s work is unnecessary and less than admirable! There’s no need to call someone stupid and pathetic because you see things differently. We all need to act maturely when we disagree.
katie says
um, as someone who majored in anthropology and traveled i can tell you that those people who are starving still have things in their culture that they would flip out over if someone “copied” such as beadwork designs, henna designs, etc.
it’s part of life, i really don’t understand people like you who have the whole “martyr” mindset.