• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Advertise
  • About Craft Brewing Business

Craft Brewing Business

Professional Insight, Unfiltered

Craft Brewing Business Craft Brewing Business
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment & Systems
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • News
  • Business & Marketing
  • Ingredients & Supplies
  • Packaging & Distribution
  • Equipment
  • Webinars & White Papers
  • COVID-19

The secret sauce: Protecting brewing recipes and processes (the role of intellectual property)

September 28, 2016Roger Zimmerman

Alaskan Brewing Heritage Coffee Brown Ale
Preserving the secret itself depends on the diligent attention and effective methods taken by the owner of the trade secret.

How can a brewer protect the brewing recipe that he or she has put so much effort into perfecting? The U.S. Copyright Office takes the position that copyright law does not protect recipes that are mere listings of ingredients. If the recipe includes secret ingredients, registration of a copyright requires the publication of the recipe, which may pose a problem — while the recipe itself is not eligible for protection, any secret ingredient would become public knowledge, a lose-lose situation. While a copyright registration can be obtained for a cookbook that contains the recipe, the protection is for the cookbook as a whole as a creative work of authorship, not an individual recipe.

Patent protection of the product and the method of making the product, which is usually more complicated than a mere listing of ingredients, could be eligible for protection by a utility patent if it can clear the hurdles of the prior art (i.e. publicly-available information upon which the recipe expands or improves) and publication of the brewing process (that again).

Beer recipes have been reconstructed from residue in 5,000-year-old pottery from China, and archaeological evidence from the Middle East suggests that brewing may be as much as 5,000 years older than that. While there are few other areas of technology with records going back to the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians, patents are still being granted for improvements in the art and science of brewing. However, the process of applying for a patent is expensive, time-consuming, and requires the disclosure and publication of the very improvement that the brewer is trying to protect.

A key to your protection strategy should be keeping at least part of the recipe or some of the ingredients secret. Perhaps your grandmother was one who was always happy to share her recipes, but always left out a key ingredient that made the result uniquely hers. Trade secrets can be protected under state law, and a new federal law enacted in May 2016, the Defend Trade Secrets Act, supplements, but does not replace, the state trade secret laws. However, all of the trade secret laws only provide some recourse in the event that the secret is stolen.

Preserving the secret itself depends on the diligent attention and effective methods taken by the owner of the trade secret. In an industry where brewers and assistants commonly move from one brewery to the next, keeping certain brewing ingredients or processes as closely guarded secrets may ensure that a departed employee does not bring your flagship beer to his new brewery, even inadvertently.

Roger Zimmerman LawyerRoger Zimmerman, partner with Bowditch & Dewey, has extensive experience in various aspects of intellectual property, including client counseling, licensing and agreements, and preparation and prosecution of U.S. and international patent applications in the areas of biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, materials, chemistry and medical devices. Prior to practicing law, Roger was a member of the faculties of Rush Medical College and the University of Illinois at Chicago.

craft beer trademark approval
Innovation Brewing wins trademark approval after opposition by Bell’s Brewery
Robert F Lewis-Marbet Lewis-Alexander F Fox-media
Meet LewisFox: Law firm opens in Florida to serve alcohol beverage industry
craft beer Trademark law
This is officially the dumbest craft beer trademark infringement story
Left Hand Nitro-3-way-pour
Left Hand Brewing’s ‘Nitro’ trademark goal raises eyebrows (brewery responds)

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Pairodicehops says

    October 2, 2016 at 1:30 am

    Protecting and copywriting brewing recipes and processes https://t.co/FDRKVVSuTn https://t.co/6rKQTTIu8u

    Log in to Reply
  2. Essau1969 says

    September 29, 2016 at 9:16 am

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: The secret sauce: Protecting brewing recipes and processes (the role of intellectual property). @BowditchDewey https…

    Log in to Reply
  3. KCHopTalk says

    September 29, 2016 at 9:05 am

    Protecting brewing recipes and processes (the role of intellectual property) https://t.co/StXEh6ff4z

    Log in to Reply
  4. beerbrewing101 says

    September 28, 2016 at 5:23 pm

    The secret sauce: Protecting brewing recipes and processes (the role of intellectual property): Beer re… https://t.co/ORscyBIaek #beer

    Log in to Reply
  5. crsimp01 says

    September 28, 2016 at 2:56 pm

    Protecting and copywriting brewing recipes and processes https://t.co/yJuNX5OUN4 via @craftbrewingbiz

    Log in to Reply
  6. VicinityBrew says

    September 28, 2016 at 1:16 pm

    RT @CraftBrewingBiz: The secret sauce: Protecting brewing recipes and processes. #RadFeature @BowditchDewey https://t.co/FCEObGlex2

    Log in to Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest News

  • BarthHaas is conducting a series of free ‘hopinars’ this fall
  • Wiley Roots Brewing brings Apumpalyptica back from the dead and more fall beers to know this week
  • Reflections in risk: How craft brewing risks evolved the past decade
  • We’re snagging this Ohio Pint Day glass on Tuesday, Sept. 26, at one of 180 craft breweries

Sign up for our newsletter

unsubscribe from list

Most Popular Today

Recent Features

  • insurance-risk-exposureReflections in risk: How craft brewing risks evolved the past decade
    September 21, 2023
  • Watch how the bacteria in Bell’s Cube wastewater facility are raised on craft beer
    September 20, 2023
  • Can Transport (1)Cheers to 10 Years: Paradox Brewing asks the key questions to revamp retail strategy
    September 19, 2023
  • Ziemann Holvrieka Managing Director Florian Schneider discusses the brewing equipment brand’s relaunch
    September 14, 2023
  • scorecardHow to scorecard brewery taproom performance
    September 13, 2023
  • Brooklyn Brewery continues beyond beer journey, invests in Hoplark’s NA beer, hop teas and hop waters
    September 12, 2023

Footer

  • Email Newsletter Sign Up
  • About Craft Brewing Business
  • Contact Us
  • Advertise on Craft Brewing Business
  • Media Kit Download
  • Privacy and Terms

© 2023 · CBB Media LLC