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[Chef]

Can a teaching curriculum/process for menu planning be patented.  For example:  There are classic French Mother Sauces that create a myriad of other sauces for creating recipes.  If I were to take these classic French sauces and develop a cirriculum within a particular culinary art style ~ the style that I have been certified ~ with my own classic Mother sauces based on these five French sauces and develop a program for teaching these sauces that led to creating a weeks worth of food could this process as well as the sauces be patented? It is a process that can be repeated for many different themed menus including a variety of ethnic and holiday menus.
Chef

[MikeM]

On face, a method of teaching does not seem to me to be statutory for patenting...  it's not my art though, and different arts have different interpretations of what's statutory...

Why not just patent whatever unique sauces you've created?  Then the teaching of how to make them is essentially covered anyway. (or is it?)

[CriterionD]

Why not just patent whatever unique sauces you've created?  Then the teaching of how to make them is essentially covered anyway. (or is it?)

Making them is covered, and the process of making them is or isn't covered depending on exactly what is claimed in the patent.  Teaching them isn't necessarily covered (teaching can be done without a demonstration), and in certain applications such a patent can be hard to enforce.  And whatever information is contained within a patent application is not subject to secrecy

Patenting a method of teaching may or may not make sense here depending on various specifics (but yes it can be done if it meets the basic requirements)

[Chef Canistelle]

Me again ~ I would like to patent the method for organizing these sauces in this new culinary arts cusine since it does not have an organized system, yet.  I have taken basic sauces that everyone is teaching/using and categorized them according to the classic French Mother sauces. I have a format to follow when creating new recipes and menus that is simple, easy, and fast when using my method based on the classic French methodology.  In this new cusine the cooked French sauces are not used, so these sauces do not conflict with what has already been established. However, these new basic sauces have already been created.  I would not have the right to patent the recipes.  Yet, they are all scattered and haven't been brought together and acclaimed as Mother Sauces of this new cuisine and placed in  foundational structure.  This is what I want to establish ~ a foundation for this new way of presenting food.

[JSonnabend]

I'm a patent attorney and classically trained chef, and I still can't follow what exactly it is you'd like to do (or what you think you've invented).  

Is it simply the listing or collecting of a new set of "mother sauces"?   That, in and of itself, isn't going to pass 103 scrutiny, if even 101 scrutiny.

Do you have some new culinary approach?  You might consider writing about it.  You couldn't protect the underlying idea, but your book itself would be subject to copyright protection.  You'd also "put yourself out there" as the creator of this new idea.  

- Jeff

[pentazole]

I'm a patent agent and chef like the previous poster, and I'm also having difficulty understanding exactly what you are seeking to patent.  Food compositions are definitely patentable, methods of making stuff is also patentable, etc. etc.  Everything is patentable, if there is an invention in there.  The standard of defining what an invention is, however, is the problem.  New case law (KSR) has only made it tougher for "inventions" to be non-obvious.  If you really think you have an invention, then you should consult an IP attorney.  At least understand your disclosure requirements before filing an application.  

Just keep in mind that method patents are extremely hard to inforce unless that method is practiced publicly.

[JSonnabend]

Pentazole -

Good to see another cook in the lot.  Where did you study?

- Jeff

[pentazole]

Just a small college in Michigan.  Part time and just for fun.  You?