Readers of the best selling “Deceptively Delicious,” by Jessica Seinfeld (comedian Jerry Seinfeld’s wife) have noticed similarities with Missy Chase Lapine’s cookbook, “The Sneaky Chef.” Both cookbooks teach parents how to surreptitiously serve vegetables to their picky children. See, NYT, October 19, 2007.
From the legal perspective, recipes which consist merely of a listing of ingredients and directions on preparing them are not subject to copyright protection. On the other hand, a recipe that is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation, directions, anecdotes, reminiscences or historical information probably will be protected by copyright. The recipes in the “The Sneaky Chef” appear to fall into the former category.
Finally, courts have extended protection to a compilation of recipes, as in a cookbook, irrespective of whether they are protected as individual recipes, only where a very substantial portion – or all - of the book is copied. Protection of a collection of recipes as a compilation would not apply where only mere “similarities” between two works were asserted.
© 2007 Anthony N. Elia
