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Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

bbc.com

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Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#51

Post by baddox »

akira2501 wrote: post #19
qaminsod wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People have different interpretations of the world, how are you going to make sure of anything?

You don't need to.. you have a reference standard and a mechanical means of comparison. Now we're not quibbling over the multitude of interpretations but over a single repeatable test and a single output number.

I doubt that’s how hardly any digital IP protection works. Surely arbitrary encodes or slight pitch/tempo/etc. transformations of a digital music file are not protected if they are deemed to be equivalent to listeners. Surely any mechanical (algorithmic) detection mechanism could be circumvented if you know the mechanism, and yet I’m pretty sure a judge will still just look at it with “common sense.”

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#52

Post by techdragon »

CapitalistCartr wrote: post #3
nmstoker wrote: post #2

Funny the article made no mention of smell, which one might suspect would be treated in a similar way.

In the United States, smell copyright is well-established case law. Smells can be copyrighted if they're not a functional part of the product. Perfume no, smell added to shovels to distinguish your brand, sure. Edit: Trademark, not copyright, damn it!

Is it actually copyright or a protection similar to trade dress like the use of a specific colour delivery vans and matching uniforms.

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#53

Post by donkeyd »

ergothus wrote: post #27
maxxxxx wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Makes me wonder, is there any formal representation for smells like we have with colors?

There is a whole world of professional "noses" used by perfume companies. They have a system for describing "notes" but I know far too little (and honestly, don't want to know more) to say more than that.

The same for wine. However, research has shown that adding red food coloring to white wine, causes people to smell the notes that are usually smelled in red wine. [0]

[0] https://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2014/08/the_most_infam...

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#54

Post by matteuan »

cpach wrote: post #30

It strikes me as very odd that anyone would even try argue in court that food could be compared to photography, literature, music or film.

Centuries of culinary arts disagree with your statement. Craftsmanship and creativity are required to create new dishes in the same degree to other other arts. Imo we should use common sense to distinguish between basic preparations and elaborate foods.

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#55

Post by PunchTornado »

reality_czech wrote: post #7
CapitalistCartr wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the United States, smell copyright is well-established case law. Smells can be copyrighted if they're not a functional part of the product. Perfume no, smell added to shovels to distinguish your brand, sure. Edit: Trademark, not copyright, damn it!

If Oracle gets its way, code smells will be copyrightable as well.

they have plenty

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#56

Post by cpach »

adrianN wrote: post #49
cpach wrote: post #30

It strikes me as very odd that anyone would even try argue in court that food could be compared to photography, literature, music or film.

Creating a good dish doesn't seem any less artistic that creating a good song.

I agree that food can be works of art and can require great skill. But to apply copyright laws to food still seems inadequate to me.

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#57

Post by ElBarto »

beatgammit wrote: post #43
ElBarto wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cooking recipes aren't protected as far as I remember so it would have been surprising to protect the end result.

That seems to be true for the most part, but if your recipe contains a lengthy narrative or something, the work as a whole could be covered by copyright[1]. I've seen this in a lot of blogs and recipe books, but I don't know how far it extends, and I'm sure someone could extract just the base recipe from the narrative and the derivative work wouldn't violate copyright. - [1] https://paleoflourish.com/recipe-copyright…

Yes, but in that case the copyright extends to the literary work, not the recipe (i.e. the technical process) itself.

Once you have published a cooking recipe you cannot prevent anyone from recreating the dish by following that recipe, even restaurants.

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#58

Post by etiennemarcel »

mrob wrote: post #15
toyg wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

On food, EU authorities don’t mess about. There is a complicated set of regulations to mark “characteristic” food, which is enforced very rigorously across the continent. The problem seems to be that such regulations mostly cover traditional foodstuffs, whereas modern industrial concoctions (like this crappy cheese) are ignored. Claiming copyright was a somewhat-clever attempt to extend protections.

The EU protected designation of origin etc. rights are effectively trademarks, so unlike copyrights or patents there's no harm to consumers. You're free to introduce competing products with the same taste under a different name, e.g. Champagne has to be produced in Champagne in France with specific ingredients and technique, but Spain produces Cava, which is almost identical.

You can buy "mousseux" (bubbly) from anywhere in France that will taste the same as most Champagnes.

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#59

Post by tomtompl »

lixtra wrote: post #37

This is surprising since food is one of the oldest subjects of “IP” in Europe: > [Sybaris around 700 BC] pioneered the concept of intellectual property to ensure that cooks could exclusively profit from their signature dishes for a whole year. [1] [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sybaris

EU != Europe though

Re: Food taste 'not protected by copyright' rules EU court

#60

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

realusername wrote: post #38
mygo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well different people have different retinas, how are you going to make sure there is a universally agreed representation, of a colored trademark =p https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08

I agree with that personally, having a trademark for a particular colour is clearly a dubious concept.

I'm not so sure, when it's an integral part of the brand (Cadbury purple for example) I think it's justified.
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