With the Class of 2018 entering the Great British Bake Off®
tent next week set to be baking a wide variety of unique and tasty
creations, we ask — can you protect your cakes and recipes
with patents?
How easy is it to patent a cake or recipe?
A cake is a chemical composition.
A recipe is a method of making a chemical composition.
Chemical compositions, and methods of making them, are
patentable within Europe. Like all other inventions, they're
assessed for being new and involving an inventive step.
A significant challenge for a baker who wants to patent their
creation is demonstrating that it would not have been obvious, to a
person skilled in the art of food creation, to try to make it.
Substituting one standard ingredient with another standard
ingredient is unlikely to be enough.
