Protecting cuisine under the rubric of intellectual property law

PROTECTING CUISINE UNDER THE RUBRIC OF INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY LAW: SHOULD THE LAW PLAY A BIGGER ROLE IN THE KITCHEN? Emily Cunningham Cite as 9 J. HIGH TECH. L. 21 (2009) I. Introduction In June 2007, Rebecca Charles, chef-owner of Pearl Oyster Bar (“Pearl”) in New York City’s Greenwich Village, sued her former sous chef, Ed McFarland, now chef and part owner of Ed’s Lobster Bar in New York’s SoHo 1 neighborhood. Inher complaint, Charles alleged that McFarland had pirated Pearl’s menu, recipes, dish presentations, décor, “look and feel,” all of which Charles believed amounted to a flagrant misappropriation of both her and 2 Pearl’s intellectual property.The detail that reportedly irritated Charles most 3 was a dish on McFarland’s menu called “Ed’s Caesar.”According to Charles, McFarland had copied her own Caesar salad recipe, made with English muffin croutons and a coddled egg dressing, which Charles maintained was a signature 4 dish at Pearl. The culinary and restaurant industries billed Charles’s suit, which settled out 5 6 of court on undisclosed terms in April 2008,as among the first of its kind.In the past, chefs and restaurateurs had invoked intellectual property concepts to defend particular aspects of their restaurants, but most had stopped short of filing suits, and few had attempted to argue intellectual property theft in such 7 totality.