Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[bhkahului]

For 14 years I worked as a chef for one of the most famous chefs in America. In my job I compiled a digital recipe library containing nearly 2,000 recipes which we used in the restaurants.
Most of the recipes are my own creations others are not. I would like to sell the recipes online to other professionals. I left the company in 2001 and there is nothing earth-shatteringly secret about any of the methods. They are just in a convenient format for professional cooking. However, many of these recipes are probably still in use within the company. Am I within my rights to sell them or should I beware?

Thank you for taking the time to help me.

[Robert K S]

It sounds like your question is whether your digital recipe library was a "work made for hire" and therefore the property of your employer.

The first thing you should check is the language of your written employment agreement, if any, which may obligate you to assign any inventions/creations/recipes to your employer.

Barring explicit mention in your employment agreement, this may become a common law issue.  The Restatement (Second) of Agency defines a work made for hire as a work made by an employee within the scope of his or her employment.  It doesn't sound like you are disputing that you were an employee.  The question becomes, then, whether the creation of this library was "within the scope" of your employment.  The common law test for scope is whether the activity (a) is of the kind the employee is employed to perform, (b) occurs substantially within authorized time and space limits, and (c) be actuated, at least in part, by a purpose serving the employer.

Presumably, you worked on this digital library while at work, and your work on it was done, at least in part, to serve your employer.  So you're left with the question of whether work on a digital recipe library is "of the kind" of work that you were hired to do.  Sounds like a pretty gray area.  Were you just hired to cook food, or also to organize and compile recipes?  If your employer really wants to take your library sales profits from you, they may argue that organizing recipes was one of the things you were hired to do for them, one of the ancillary parts of the job, just like washing the occasional dish or sharpening the occasional knife.

And, of course, all of the above is only the musings of a person who has but a facile grasp of the law, and should not be relied upon.  If you want legal advice, you have to consult a lawyer.

[JSonnabend]

Who wrote the recipes?  To be clear, I am not asking who developed the recipes, but who actualy wrote the written version of them?

- Jeff

[bhkahului]

I actually developed and personally wrote approximately half of the recipes. I compiled the other recipes by transcribing the work of our other chefs into into the format I created. That required heavy editing of spelling and grammatical errors. The recipes have a consistent layout and organization because of my work.

[JSonnabend]

To the extent that you wrote the recipes, you are ostensibly the author.  Robert's concern about work for hire may come in to play.

One approach you might consider is going through the recipes and rewriting them afresh.  The underlying recipes can stay the same, but changing the wording could avoid any work for hire issues.

- Jeff

[bhkahului]

great idea. knowing the work ahead of me, im feeling more comfortable with this project. thank you.

[chugan]

For 14 years I worked as a chef for one of the most famous chefs in America. In my job I compiled a digital recipe library containing nearly 2,000 recipes which we used in the restaurants.
Most of the recipes are my own creations others are not. I would like to sell the recipes online to other professionals. I left the company in 2001 and there is nothing earth-shatteringly secret about any of the methods. They are just in a convenient format for professional cooking. However, many of these recipes are probably still in use within the company. Am I within my rights to sell them or should I beware?

Copyright doesn't normally protect recipes--at least to the extent it lists ingredients.  Illustrations, or some text in the recipe that meets minimum creativity standards probably is protected.  Here's a link to a circular: http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html

Chris

http://nashbillies.wordpress.com/

[JSonnabend]

While what Chris says is true, once we venture into the world of cookbooks, then copyright considerations are important.  One is always free to copy the concepts and ideas expressed in cookbook (and other) recipes, but one must be careful to avoid the protected expressions they may contain.

- Jeff

[bhkahului]

The recipes are mostly lists of ingredients for large batches of product. They have minimal instructions sometimes only one word like mix and emulsify. They presume the reader knows how to cook. I'm also assuming that since they were never published for the public in this form that no one in the company has had them copyrighted.

[Kaitlin]

I'm also assuming that since they were never published for the public in this form that no one in the company has had them copyrighted.

Current copyright law doesn't require registration of the copyright for the copyright to exist.  Once a work is "fixed in a tangible medium of expression," it's "copyrighted".
But, again, it's the manner of expression, not the underlying information, that is subject to copyright.

[JSonnabend]

Separate and apart from copyright might be other issues like trade secret, etc.  These issues would have to be assessed in view of any employment contract you might of had and with reference to state law.

- Jeff

[candypat]

Put it to yourself because as it is a property its price now also increases a lot so due to that your profit ratio increases a lot which is very beneficial for you.