J and S Davis Holdings Ltd v Wright Health Group, 1988 RPC 403

Citation:J and S Davis Holdings Ltd v Wright Health Group, 1988 RPC 403

Link to case on WorldLII (reference).

Rule of thumb:Is there any copyright protection for a new food/drink recipe? No, there is no copyright protection for this. This has to be protected under ‘trade secret’ contract clauses.

Judgment:

New recipes for cooking food do not attract copyright protection as they do not create something sufficiently new. New recipes have to be protected by ‘trade secrets’ which is the unwritten part of intellectual property law, ‘You do not infringe copyright in a recipe by making a cake’, Whitford J, at 414

Warning: This is not professional legal advice. This is not professional legal education advice. Please obtain professional guidance before embarking on any legal course of action. This is just an interpretation of a Judgment by persons of legal insight & varying levels of legal specialism, experience & expertise. Please read the Judgment yourself and form your own interpretation of it with professional assistance.