Discussion:
What is the name of your state? WI
Does anyone know how much different must your ingredient in a food be so that no one can sue you for trying to sell their burger or dinner. for example, in a burger industry, i often notice that the only difference between mcDonald and Burger King are the size of the burger and the buns (maybe the meat too), everything else is the same but structured differently. a hamburger is a hamburger regardless where you go. it will have a meat, ketchup, pickle and bun. the difference between hamburger A and hamburger B is the size. how do you make a burger that doesn't look like you copy it directly from Wendy or Burger King.
here's my actual problem. i want to open a restaurant. one of the dish is a Pad Thai, all the restaurant that have pad thai have similar taste and ingredient, almost the same. maybe different by the amount of sauce(oil, soy sauce, etc). there is only one way to cook it but it can be prepared differently.
if i change the amouth of sauce, even by a ounch of sugar, does that make any different? will anyone come up and says, "hey, you're using our ingredient and method".
and if you open a restaurant, can you use sauce already make by someone else and use it commercially, e.g, lee kum kee oyster sauce.
Answer:
What is the name of your state? WI
Does anyone know how much different must your ingredient in a food be so that no one can sue you for trying to sell their burger or dinner. for example, in a burger industry, i often notice that the only difference between mcDonald and Burger King are the size of the burger and the buns (maybe the meat too), everything else is the same but structured differently. a hamburger is a hamburger regardless where you go. it will have a meat, ketchup, pickle and bun. the difference between hamburger A and hamburger B is the size. how do you make a burger that doesn't look like you copy it directly from Wendy or Burger King.
here's my actual problem. i want to open a restaurant. one of the dish is a Pad Thai, all the restaurant that have pad thai have similar taste and ingredient, almost the same. maybe different by the amount of sauce(oil, soy sauce, etc). there is only one way to cook it but it can be prepared differently.
if i change the amouth of sauce, even by a ounch of sugar, does that make any different? will anyone come up and says, "hey, you're using our ingredient and method".
and if you open a restaurant, can you use sauce already make by someone else and use it commercially, e.g, lee kum kee oyster sauce. Unless a recipe is patented (and such a patent is very unlikely), you are free to copy anyone's recipe. Period. A "secret sauce" is only a secret as long as it can be kept a secret -- once the secret is out, anyone can use it. You could make hamburgers identical to the ones made by McDonald's, and there is nothing McDonald's could do about it, unless they could prove you stole some trade secrets of something.
The reason why Burger King makes it's burgers different from McDonald's has NOTHING to do with patents or trademarks or copyrights or trade secrets -- it's strictly a business decision. Although you could potentially make burgers identical to those sold by McDonald's, since it is unlikely that you could provide those burgers at a price LESS than what McDonald's charges, and because you can get a McDonald's burger anywhere, why would anyone go to your restaurant to get the same burger than can get elsewhere, only more expensive? Burger King makes their burgers different because they need to give people a reason to shop at their stores.
And yes, you can use commercially-available stuff in your own cooking. Do you think restaurants make their own oyster sauce from scratch? Of course not.
Answer:
A "secret sauce" is only a secret as long as it can be kept a secret -- once the secret is out, anyone can use it. . Yep, that's why NO ONE will ever know my recipe for chili...
Answer:
What the dickens is a Pad thai?
The difference if their burgers are they name their burgers. Notice they all also sell "hamburgers" as in the generic term.
? to divgradcurl: when the burger joints make and name these special burgers presumably the name would be copywrited but do they also TM these products and would the actual design of the burger be TM'd
Answer:
What the dickens is a Pad thai?
The difference if their burgers are they name their burgers. Notice they all also sell "hamburgers" as in the generic term.
? to divgradcurl: when the burger joints make and name these special burgers presumably the name would be copywrited but do they also TM these products and would the actual design of the burger be TM'd The name is not copyrighted, it is trademarked. Names, short phrases, logos, etc., are not copyrightable subject matter. I suppose the burgers themselves could be covered by trademark, I don't know, I've never actually checked.
Answer:
What the dickens is a Pad thai? This would trully be an invention, a Pad thai burger