I’m happy to report that there is at least one thing that intellectual property lawyers haven’t been able to lock down. Not yet, anyway. It’s the contents of our drink glasses.
The Atlantic is a typical proggy MSM rag, and it’s always fun to see it discredited by someone who has done some actual research in the field.
The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails? Not So Much
Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Sep 02, 2010 at 11:44AM
This Tuesday, an article appeared on the Atlantic.Com called The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails? Back in July, writer Chantal Martineau attended a seminar about protecting intellectual property at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans. The seminar was the intellectual property of Eben Freeman, a NYC barman who used to make drinks at the now-defunct Tailor in Manhattan. Freeman, an undisputed pioneer in the industry, feels that his ideas have been unjustly ganked by his cocktail-making colleagues.
“Someone needs to get sued,” Freeman told Martineau, “to set a precedent.” That intrigued me, but the article didn’t really investigate how such a lawsuit would work. So I called a lawyer, William Ferron of the Seed intellectual property Law Group in Seattle, and asked him.
“Sue for what?” asked Ferron. “There really isn’t protection for a drink recipe, so I don’t see this type of suit being cost effective or productive.”
