sportscrazed2
Well-Known Member
Just curious how legal it is for different homebrew supply stores to sell clones of commercial beers? Don't they have some kind of copyright to prevent this?
really? a commercial brewer would help develop a clone recipe? cool i might have to try that one out.
Just curious how legal it is for different homebrew supply stores to sell clones of commercial beers? Don't they have some kind of copyright to prevent this?
The only issue I've had questions about in regards to selling clones, and I've brought it up on here, is there's one online retailer who is packaging and selling the clones of the BYO 250 recipes. In fact rather than offering instruction sheets with these "kits" they tell folks to buy the magazine. I've wondered if the have, and/or need permission from the mag to sell the kits as "BYO magazine" recipes, and if they obtained permission. It does say in the typical small print boilerplate in the magazine that all contents of the magazine are owned by the publishers and you need permission to reproduce them commercially.
Armchair lawyers have argued back and forth about it in those threads. I finally emailed the mag form clarifiaction but never heard back, and don't know if they persued it with the vendor. And the vendor's never posted back on here since they started a thread on here, so who knows if they got shut down, or were fishy to begin with.
I don't believe you can copywrite a recipe or a scent. Clones of perfume are legal.
Yes, yes you can.
The only brewery I've found to be aggressively tight lipped about their beer is New Glarus brewery, unfortunately, since I'd love to attempt to clone some of their beers.
How do I protect my sighting of Elvis?
Copyright law does not protect sightings. However, copyright law will protect your photo (or other depiction) of your sighting of Elvis. File your claim to copyright online by means of the electronic Copyright Office (eCO). Pay the fee online and attach a copy of your photo. Or, go to the Copyright Office website, fill in Form CO, print it, and mail it together with your photo and fee. For more information on registration a copyright, see SL-35. No one can lawfully use your photo of your sighting, although someone else may file his own photo of his sighting. Copyright law protects the original photograph, not the subject of the photograph.
But they did clear up that whole issue I had with my pic of Elvis in the Kalamazoo Burger King, though.
This is true. I asked them for a few hints on their Golden Ale and they didn't send me a reply at all. Just completely ignored me. I do love touring their brewery though. One of these days I need to do the actual pay tour.
They charge you for the tour?
Isn't this sort of what pharmacies do with their house brand of brand-name drugs? I mean they have the exact "recipe" in some (most/all?) cases, and sell it right next to the brand name for less.
Does this apply even to "new" "drugs" that are merely a combination of already existing drugs, just packaged differently and/or together? Like adding sudafed to robitussin, or maybe airborne or something (I'm not a pharmacist so I don't know for sure if those are great examples, but there has to be something where they take two or more existing ingredients, combine them in effective dosages and market a new product). I think such a case would be more applicable here too, for that matter.Yes and No... in the case of drugs, they can only be replicated after their "brand name" patent has expired. Though the patents last about 20 years (I believe), they actually are obtained during the testing, trials, etc... and so they only last about 10 years after the drug is actually approved and on the shelves. Once it's expired... it's essentially free-reign... copy at will. Meanwhile, the brand name company is still trying to pay off the R&D costs, and so they're forced to continue to charge more.
So if a cola company stumbled upon a coke recipe so close as to be indistinguishable from the original, and sold it for less (or the same/more, whatever), would it be punishable? Is it illegal to keep guessing and if you get it, good for you?
What about if a chef at a nice restaurant makes a dish you really like, is it then illegal to try to recreate it and serve it at your own restaurant?
Morals and bad business aside, is it illegal to do either of these things?
I would think that normally, there's nothing wrong with you selling something that tastes as much like Coca Cola as possible. Your problems would start if you started calling it Coca Cola, implying it was Coca Cola being sold under a generic label, copying Coke bottles and logos closely enough to create confusion between their product and yours, or otherwise trying to make customers believe they were buying Coca Cola.We keep mentioning coca-cola, and their recipe being a trade secret instead of patented.
So if a cola company stumbled upon a coke recipe so close as to be indistinguishable from the original, and sold it for less (or the same/more, whatever), would it be punishable? Is it illegal to keep guessing and if you get it, good for you?
What about if a chef at a nice restaurant makes a dish you really like, is it then illegal to try to recreate it and serve it at your own restaurant?
Morals and bad business aside, is it illegal to do either of these things?
Isn't this sort of what pharmacies do with their house brand of brand-name drugs? I mean they have the exact "recipe" in some (most/all?) cases, and sell it right next to the brand name for less.
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