Companies spend a lot of time and money to develop new ingredients and new food products but unless they are protected, if successful, they are sure to be copied and to be on the market in record time.
So what can be done about this? Well, with modern analytical techniques and technology virtually anything can be analysed and an astute scientist can probably reverse engineer most ingredients and products, especially if none considers the amount of information that needs to be disclosed to a customer and the regulatory requirements for disclosure. Keeping recipes and formulations secret is thus not a practical option and added to this is the risk of employees or contractors taking the information and providing it to competitors.
It is thus strongly recommended that a patent be filed for any new ingredient or product formulation as this will provide protection against being copied whether by connected parties or anyone else.
A current example of such a patent which was recently published by the World Intellectual Property Organisation is https://patentimages.storage.googleapis.com/38/97/ce/f4bab078f1f1f6/WO2018020054A1.pdf which is an international patent application for A CONCENTRATED FOOD PRODUCT AND METHOD FOR PREPARING SAME. You may recognise the names of the inventors...................
So if you have developed a new food product or a new ingredient, or a process for making such an ingredient or foodproduct then contact Janusz Luterek of Hahn & Hahn (www.sapat.co.za ) who is not only a patent attorney but has extensive experience in the food industry and can understand your invention."
About the Author
Janusz F. Luterek, Pr.Eng for Hahn & Hahn Attorneys
For advice on compliance and other legal issues in the food industry contact Janusz Luterek at janusz@hahnlaw.co.za - your food lawyer.
www.hahnlaw.co.za
