Intellectual Property Protection for the Creative Chef, or How to Copyright a Cake: A Modest Proposal

Malla Pollack, American Justice School of Law

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Abstract

This Note presents an original proposal for extending copyright protection to food (not to the appearance of the food, nor to the recipe for the food, but to the food itself). Because of the unusual nature of the suggestion, the Note begins with a detailed statement of the proposal: the intended beneficiaries, the dearth of current protection, and the recommended judicial action. It then covers the proposal's relationship to the Constitution and the legislative history of the 1976 Copyright Act. Finally, the Note briefly discuss the proposal's administrability. The Note also includes several wonderful recipes -- especially the epidome of the copyrightable food form - Simone Beck's Montmorency Cake. The Note is, of course, a reductio ad absurdum of the standard argument for extending copyright protection.