Frequently Asked Questions

Recipes fall within patent-eligible statutory categories, since a final food product is “a composition of matter,” and the steps to create the food product represent a process. For patentability, the recipe passes the first hurdle. However, to be patentable, the recipe must also be new—as in, no one has ever performed the steps and/or formed the product before—as well a nonobvious. The nonobvious threshold is often the death of a recipe patent.