Food Engineering/Manufacturing/trademarking recipes

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Expert: Jim Pfister - 10/4/2008


Question
In order to make a recipe into a food item available for purchase in grocery
stores - do you need to trademark the packaging and paten the original recipe?
If so how do you go about doing this?

Answer
Jennifer,
You don't "need" to do anything re: patenting or trademarking. You do it if you think protection is required. The issue will be whether your idea is unique and different enough that a patent would even be granted. Patents also take forever. I have seen cases where patents are applied for - which allows you to put "patent pending" on your documents - just to let everyone know.

As always, with anything legal, you need to speak to your attorney to find out what all the correct procedures are.

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Jim Pfister

Expertise

Food Engineering/Manufacturing, Food Packaging/Distribution, Engineering Beverage Lines, Reducing operating cost of packaging lines while increasing efficiency. Lean Manufacturing. Incorporating new package technology into existing operations. Training staff to achieve smooth transition from "start-up" to full production. Managing complex projects across multi-disciplinary lines. Equipment PreShipment Factory Acceptance testing and Commissioning programs for new equipment.

Experience

Employment history: Over thirty-five years of experience. Managed as much as $40MM in concurrent, multi-disciplinary projects, both domestic and international, and have worked with such firms as Campbell Soup, Coca-Cola, Hershey`s, and Nabisco.

Organizations: An author and speaker, as well as a member of the IoPP. Past Chairman of IoPP`s Consultant`s Council and Member of the Packaging Equipment Performance Committee.

Publications: PMMI Solutions `99, Monthly Packaging Tipsheets

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