'Food Recipes' Also Patentable... 1,450 Registered in the Last 5 Years

Trends in patent applications related to food and cooking methods from 2016 to September 2020. Provided by the Korean Intellectual Property Office.

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] There is growing public interest in whether recipes developed by individuals can be protected by patents. This interest arose following the controversy over the alleged menu plagiarism of ‘Deopjuk’ revealed on the recent program ‘Baek Jong-won's Alley Restaurant’.

In response to such questions, the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) stated, “If originality is recognized, a patent can be obtained.”

According to KIPO on the 20th, an average of about 4,200 food-related patents were filed annually from 2016 to 2019. Among these, patent applications related to cooking methods such as bibimbap, porridge, samgyetang, and sauces accounted for about 1,000 annually, representing 24.8% of the total.

In particular, the number of patents filed during the same period that were registered was 287 in 2016, 396 in 2017, 394 in 2018, 237 in 2019, and 136 as of September this year.

Regarding the types of applicants for cooking method-related patents, individual applicants accounted for 60.5% of the total, followed by small and medium-sized enterprises at 25.9%, and universities and public institutions at 9.8%.

On the other hand, in the status of multiple applicants, institutions or companies such as the Rural Development Administration, Korea Food Research Institute, and CJ CheilJedang Corp. ranked high.

Based on this, KIPO judges that since cooking methods are closely related to the daily lives of the public, the government and large corporations also show high interest in patent applications.

Furthermore, patent applications and registrations related to cooking methods have been ongoing general activities for some time.

However, KIPO emphasizes that certain requirements must be met to apply for and register a patent for a cooking method, among which ‘originality’ is essential.

For example, the ‘Kimchi Rice Burger Manufacturing Method’ is a representative case that has completed patent registration as a food in a different form from existing ones.

Above all, even if a cooking method has been publicly known through online or broadcast media, patent application and registration are possible if the originality of the cooking method is recognized. This can be confirmed through cases such as Gondre vegetable cup rice cooked to prevent discoloration of the greens, black rice pizza dough enhanced with black rice for improved texture and nutrition, and rice cake cooking methods that do not harden over time.

Shin Kyung-ah, head of the Food and Biological Resources Examination Division at KIPO, said, “Anyone can apply for and register a patent for an original cooking method and receive legal protection through it.”

In particular, she advised, “Even if the cooking method was disclosed on broadcasts or blogs before the patent application, if a ‘grace period application’ is filed within one year, it will not be rejected based on the content disclosed by the applicant and can be utilized.”

A grace period application refers to a system where if an inventor discloses the invention to the public and files an application within one year, the application is not rejected due to the disclosed content.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.