Can anyone patent a recipe? I have a recipe that is loved by most of my friends and relatives and today one of my friends asked me to patent it. However, I doubt if it could be done.
Apparently you can patent a food recipe as long as it meets the basic requirements of patentability: it must be useful, novel and contain a non-obvious component. Seems the non-obvious component can be the tricky part. Read more here! Vishal, you may get more fulfillment and satisfaction from continuing to delight your friends' tastebuds with your awesome recipe, and allowing their rave reviews to be a tribute to your culinary skills. Hermas
Patents allow your "secret formula" to be not so secret once the patent is granted. All a competitor has to do is copy your recipe and add ONE ingredient to get a new patent. I think trademarking a name and keeping your recipe secret is a better route to follow. Not that I have ever done it.
Very true Hermas! The feeling you get from making your friends and dear ones happy is nothing compared to the royalty I might get from patenting my recipe. Once you convert your passion in to business, I think it loses it's charm. Totally agree Jimmy. I guess it's better to do it on a small scale and stay contented than let the greed take you over and expect the unexpected along the way.
This is true, you can patent the final product and market it, but you must keep the receipe a secret.
That's always a possibility. Yet that is exactly what people are encouraged to do when deciding on an online business. "Do something you are passionate about," they are told. The reasoning is they'll be more easily motivated and less likely to quit when the going gets really tough. There are many success stories to support that argument. I think the real danger of one's passion losing its charm begins when it ceases to be fun and becomes work. Hermas
