Various culinary blogs are increasingly common online, and access to recipes once guarded and passed down from generation to generation is becoming increasingly easy. When running a culinary profile, we might begin to wonder whether a recipe is copyrighted, and how much inspiration we can draw from a recipe published in a book or on another blog.

To answer this question, we must first point out that every work is protected by law and recall the statutory definition of a work – according to the Copyright and Related Rights Act, a work is any manifestation of creative activity of an individual nature, established in any form, regardless of value, purpose, or method of expression . Therefore, to determine whether our recipe is subject to copyright protection, we must examine whether it constitutes a work within the meaning of the Act.

It is generally accepted that a recipe itself does not constitute a work within the meaning of the Act, which stipulates that procedures , principles of operation, and mathematical concepts are not protected . However, the manner of its presentation, the form in which the recipe is conveyed, is a work, provided that it possesses an aspect of individuality and creativity. A list of ingredients needed to prepare a dish, nor the idea itself, will certainly not constitute a work. However, a step-by-step description of how to prepare a dish, photographs taken during the preparation, or a video of the dish being prepared may constitute a work.

Therefore, if we copy an entire recipe from a book, along with a description of how to prepare the dish, especially without indicating the author of the recipe, we may infringe not only the copyright of that person, but also his or her personal rights.

In turn, we can be inspired by someone else's idea for a dish without any risk, we can also present a culinary recipe where we even list exactly the same ingredients as in the original recipe, as long as we give the description of the preparation a completely different form.

Of course, we can also recreate a recipe at home that we find online or in a book.

In summary, it is impossible to definitively determine whether a culinary recipe constitutes a work within the meaning of the Copyright Act, and we must assess each recipe's creative and individual character on a case-by-case basis. If we find such characteristics, we can conclude that it is a protected work and we cannot infringe upon the rights associated with it.

This alert is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.

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