Patentability of Food Recipes in India: An Analysis in Comparison with United States of America

Abstract

Food is regarded as a very important part of every culture in the world. The older the culture the more ingrained are the recipes. Recent times have seen massive growth in the field of restaurants as well as programs based on food and its recipes. This new development brought with it awareness regarding the intellectual property rights related to food recipes. A general trend in terms of the protection of food recipes' intellectual property rights has been the use of trade secrets. The majority of food recipes that have been granted patents are said to have been prepared in the laboratories rather than in the kitchen. They often include a process that is fundamentally unique for it to be granted a patent. This paper deals with the analysis of patent laws in India and the USA in relation to food recipes.