Can someone use a recipe to sell a food product or would that violate a copyright law?

Following the directions of any copyrighted work does not violate copyright. Copyright only covers the expression of the idea, not the idea, facts, process, function, discovery, principle or system described in the copyrighted work.

If you were to copy the EXACT words (not to mention photos) of a copyrighted recipe, it could (in theory) be a copyright infringement, but only if the copyright owners can prove it was creative and original.

Hundreds of kinds of cookies are, in fact, patented as a product from a unique process or from a unique combination of ingredients, or both.

Thousands of kinds of cookies are also protected by trademarks, which serve as a distinctive indication of the source and quality of those particular goods.

It is not, in fact, a trademark infringement to follow a Toll House Cookie recipe (or any other recipe) and put your own brand on the goods, since YOU are the source and YOU create the quality. This is a "big deal" for franchising, which may include many "trade secrets" to preserve some special value that not just anybody can copy (since it's secret). Even if there had been a patent on Toll House Cookies, it would have expired 17 years after it was patented in the 1930s.

You can use any ingredients you like, list their individual trademarks, and it is STILL not a trademark infringement, since you're not saying the COOKIES are from Nestle, but that you have USED chocolate chips from Nestle. It's like saying you bought a Chevrolet with Bridgestone tires. Bridgestone doesn't have any particular control over who buys and uses their tires on the cars and it is perfectly legal to advertise a Chevy with Bridgestones.

I'm not sure what you mean by using a recipe to sell a product. If you mean will you be violating copyright if you use someone ELSE'S recipe for your own cookie product, then you have really nothing to worry about UNLESS the cookie is very unique and has been patented -- not too many of these exist.

You don't have to use brand names in your recipe. And you can alter, change or modify someone else's recipe for your own product. Not all recipes are copyrighted--and you cannot copyright the actual COOKIE. You do NOT want to reprint a recipe VERBATIM from someone else's cookbook to call your own recipe--but you can certainly reprint one in any cookbook.

Here's the basic difference: you can't market your own cookie as your OWN recipe using, say, Mrs. Field's or Toll House's EXACT recipe--and say that it's yours. You CAN use some OTHER brand of chocolate chips and ingredients, and say this is your recipe--which it is. When it comes to cookies, there are really no recipes that aren't similar to each other--and you can tweak them in some way to make them unique to you. (This also means YOU can't copyright it!)

But with a cookie business, just make sure you are using your own ideas--and not someone else's name or brand identity. It's not the COOKIE that will get you in trouble, it's the brand identifiers. Those are not copyrighted, they are TRADEMARKED--which is different. You can make a cookie exactly like a Toll House choc chip cookie, using generic ingredients--and they can't say a thing about it, because any OTHER choc chip recipe is going to be exactly like yours. However, you can't use TOLL HOUSE morsels and call it YOURS--because the Toll House morsel brand is trademarked. So if you make a choc chip cookie, call it "Jane's Chocolate Chip Cookies" and list anyone's chocolate chips or ingredients as the recipe--and that will be safe.

I hope this is understandable. Check out the websites for patent and trademarks and copyright for further info:

www.copyright.gov

www.uspto.gov

No, because you aren't copying the logos. Copyright law requires a reproduction be created. Of course, the logos aren't copyrightable in the first place, they are trademarked. and there could be a trademark issue, if your use is somehow confusing for the consumer, or you're tarnishing the reputation of the trademark. But that doesn't seem to be the case. Assuming these facts, go forth and sell.

Can You Trademark A Recipe

copyright applies to the way the author says to prepare a recipe! But there are only so many ways to do this within the confines of good grammer that I don't see it as working.

copyright does not apply to ingredients! and this is what you need to print on your packages to sell them. In order of the greatest amount of ingredient down to smallest amount of ingredient.

then you need ot get it analyzed at a certified test kitchen for nutrients.

I have tried to get my bread labels correct to the law and it is not easy.