Obtaining A Patent For A Food Product.

[Marcus]

Hi there. A friend of mine makes a garlic dip that is unlike anything on the market right now. Everyone keeps telling her she needs to get a patent and start selling it. I told her I'd do some research and try to help her get started, so here I am. I'm hoping you can help me learn how I might go about getting a patent on a food product. I believe she wants to try to sell this on her own as opposed to selling the recipe to a big company or anything like that. Any help or tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you very much for your time.

[Darrol]

A friend of mine makes a garlic dip that is unlike anything on the market right now. Everyone keeps telling her she needs to get a patent and start selling it. I told her I'd do some research and try to help her get started, so here I am. I'm hoping you can help me learn how I might go about getting a patent on a food product. I believe she wants to try to sell this on her own as opposed to selling the recipe to a big company or anything like that. Any help or tips and suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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Hi there,

Apparently she doesn't realize the "how to make and use" her dip will be fully revealed in any patent application assuming what she has qualifies for one in the first place. It is very difficult to try to patent recipes. Meaning, she will give up the formula retained under trade secret status if she elects to file a patent application when and if it is either(a) published and/or(b) a patent issues on it. More difficult unless she's a millionaire with a private "food police force" capable of identifying then suing and/or securing license agreements from all copy-cats who read the publicly posted formula via one of the above two ways. It is my personal opinion she's wasting her time and money applying for a patent on a recipe but to confirm it, have her speak with a patent attorney or minimally get a professional patent search rendered accompanied by a written legal opinion. Cola-Cola kept its formula secret for a very long time although allegedly a secretary revealed within the last few years and as I understood it, served and/or is serving prison time. Whether or not that formula is now publicly available therefore has lost its trade secret status I don't know. My advice is: keep the recipe a trade secret and privately sell it in abundance. If it's that hot of a seller a big time licensee(s) will come her way. Regards,

Penny Ballou