New York Pizzeria claimed that Gina’s Italian Kitchen — founded by an ousted exec — violated its trademark by creating a pizza that tasted the same as its own pie. The judge wasn’t buying it.
Judge Costa goes on to note that the scrutiny of trademark law applying to the flavor of pizza logically should be much greater than even the flavor of medicine. It’s a very nice way of calling this whole thing silly and telling everyone to go home. The case has been summarily dismissed, thankfully. Were this sort of dispute allowed to find any kind of foothold, a well-functioning foods industry could be tossed completely for a loop. The trademark-able flavor angle would essentially be an end-around the fact that copyright doesn’t apply to recipes. After all, if you can simply protect the end result of the recipe, what would be the difference?
Pizzeria Attempts To Trademark The Flavor Of Pizza. Yes, Seriously. [Timothy Geigner/Techdirt]
(Image: Brick-oven Margarita pizza, Samat Jain, CC-BY-SA)