Protecting Cocktails from Competition
Is it possible to stop others from copying my drinks?
An article posted in Daily Beast by Philip Greene (https://www.thedailybeast.com/can-you-trademark-a-cocktail-recipe) discusses how intellectual property law is applied to cocktails. He writes:
To start at the most basic level, intellectual property comprises trademarks (names, logos, slogans), copyright (artistic and written works, music, etc.), patents (inventions), and trade secrets (proprietary formulas, like for Coca-Cola or Bénédictine). Generally speaking, a drink recipe, once published, cannot be protected by copyright. Recipes are considered facts, and facts typically aren’t protectable by copyright.
The way to keep a recipe from being used by others is to actually keep is secret (i.e., Coca-Cola) - so it is considered a trade secret. If is gets published, the recipe is generally not protectable.
Liquor companies have been successful in using trademarks to distinguish their cocktails from others. Dark ‘n Stormy® and Painkiller® are trademarked drinks, which provides the owner of the trademark certain protections. Gosling's Rum, the owner of Dark ‘n Stormy®, has certain rights to control how their trademark is used in the market. If you are using their trademarked name, but not using Gosling's Rum in the recipe, expect a cease and desist letter.
Similarly, using the name of a specific brand in a coctail's name can provide protection to the brand - such a "the Bacardi Cocktail" or "Pimms Cup."
Trademarked drink names have also been used for venue specific drinks. For example:
Applebee’s has successfully registered the name Summer Squeeze® (rum and fruit juice) as a trademark, so presumably you couldn’t get that same drink at, say, TGI Friday’s ... These “venue-based” drinks are similar to, say, names from the fast food world, like Big Mac®, which we all know you can only get at McDonald’s.
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