The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails?

Thursday, September 2, 2010

The Era of Copyrighted Cocktails?

» by Chantal Martineau, The Atlantic

After the seminar, I spoke to [Eben] Freeman, who admitted he came up with the idea for the talk after becoming fed up with other bartenders and establishments taking credit for and profiting from his recipes and techniques. (Fat washing, for example, the process by which a spirit can be infused with, say, bacon, was pioneered in part by Freeman, yet is often attributed to others.) “Someone needs to get sued … to set a precedent,” he told me.

“In no other creative business can you so easily identify money attached to your creative property,” Freeman went on. “There is an implied commerce to our intellectual property. Yet we have less protection than anyone else.” So, can a cocktail be copyrighted? In short, no.

Eben Freeman seems bitter. Maybe rightly so, after all, I created breakfast ramen and where’s my medal? Cocktail copyrights are the wrong answer, though. Part of the joy of a good drink when out, is watching an expert put one together. I’ve learned so much observing bartenders, good and bad alike, from how to chill a glass quickly to using garnish for more than eye candy. It’s made my attempts at home better. A copyright could take the chaka-chaka-chaka sound of a fresh drink from behind the bar, behind closed doors as bartenders worry about breaking their NDAs for making cocktails in public.

I’d rather have a drink that will cloud my intellect properly than one that’s considered intellectual property.

Seems that proper attribution is the problem here.

“There’s no honor among thieves” — Me, just now.

(via infoneer-pulse)