Breakfast Diva
Well-known member
- Joined
- May 27, 2009
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Has anyone here tradmarked your business name?
I've always sold a self made cookbook and it's been very popular. Our signature cookie is hugely popular. People return because of it. It's been served here for the 23 years the b&b has been here. I do include it in my cookbook. It's one of the main reasons people buy so many cookbooks here.
My concern is that when I do a more significant cookbook and hopefully sell more of them, this recipe will appear all over the internet. It's a very unique recipe and I have never seen it anywhere else.
I looked into copyrighting the recipe, but that's impossible. A recipe can not be copyrighted. It's considered a matter of fact. From the copyright website:
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.
Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to names, titles, short phrases, ideas, systems, or methods.
The name of the cookie has our b&b in the title. It looks like I can trademark the business name, and if anyone then uses it to reproduce our recipe, I can have them take it down.
The reason I'm so protective about the recipe is that someday I may want to take this cookie to produce commercially. Yes, they are really THAT good.
Another reason to trademark our name is to have more control over who uses it without authorization. Not typically a big deal, but you never know what will happen on the internet in the future.
The fees for a patent are pretty steep. $375 & up.
A copyright is cheaper, but a business name can not be copyrighted.
Any thoughts?
I've always sold a self made cookbook and it's been very popular. Our signature cookie is hugely popular. People return because of it. It's been served here for the 23 years the b&b has been here. I do include it in my cookbook. It's one of the main reasons people buy so many cookbooks here.
My concern is that when I do a more significant cookbook and hopefully sell more of them, this recipe will appear all over the internet. It's a very unique recipe and I have never seen it anywhere else.
I looked into copyrighting the recipe, but that's impossible. A recipe can not be copyrighted. It's considered a matter of fact. From the copyright website:
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.
Copyright protects only the particular manner of an author’s expression in literary, artistic, or musical form. Copyright protection does not extend to names, titles, short phrases, ideas, systems, or methods.
The name of the cookie has our b&b in the title. It looks like I can trademark the business name, and if anyone then uses it to reproduce our recipe, I can have them take it down.
The reason I'm so protective about the recipe is that someday I may want to take this cookie to produce commercially. Yes, they are really THAT good.
Another reason to trademark our name is to have more control over who uses it without authorization. Not typically a big deal, but you never know what will happen on the internet in the future.
The fees for a patent are pretty steep. $375 & up.
A copyright is cheaper, but a business name can not be copyrighted.
Any thoughts?