Comments on: What the Restaurant Business Needs is More Lawyers!

By: paint

paint — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:15:06 +0000

I do quite agree on what the wikipedia have.. thanks..

By: bradencox

bradencox — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 16:54:55 +0000

In the U.S. non-compete agreements are common in an employment relationship, and they are enforceable if reasonable with respect to duration and geographic limitation, and if consideration is involved. The Wikipedia article cited above also confirms this: “Employment contracts which include restraining clauses, are generally held to fulfill the requirements in Nordenfelt…” [Nordenfelt is a case that has set forth a test for reasonableness in this area).

By: Braden

Braden — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 15:54:55 +0000

By: eee_eff

eee_eff — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 05:11:25 +0000

If someone agrees to be hired, trained and employed by a chef--and voluntarily sings an agreement that he won't take the recipes and run to compete against his employer--this is a matter of contract law and an ex-employee that violates this agreement should be sued for breach of contract.

It is very far from that simple. IANAL, but in general those do not compete clauses are not valid, under a doctrine called restraint of trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restraint_of_trade

By: enigma_foundry

enigma_foundry — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 04:11:25 +0000

It is very far from that simple. IANAL, but in general those do not compete clauses are not valid, under a doctrine called restraint of trade.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Restraint_of_trade

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 00:25:06 +0000

Ah, I thought Tom Lee was Tim Lee’s alter ego, the self-link was intentional and you were having a laugh…

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:25:06 +0000

Ah, I thought Tom Lee was Tim Lee’s alter ego, the self-link was intentional and you were having a laugh…

By: Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:23:15 +0000

Your link to the Tom Lee article points to this article.

By: Mike Sullivan

Mike Sullivan — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 19:23:15 +0000

Your link to the Tom Lee article points to this article.

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:12:14 +0000

Tim: You should go after this Tom Lee guy for stealing your ideas. (Or should he go after you?)

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:09:45 +0000

Restaurant "look and feel" lawsuits (about restaurant decor and menu, rather than recipes) already hit the big time with Taco Cabana v. Two Pesos (a case that resulted in the demise of Two Pesos, which was a restaurant I enjoyed visiting as a grad student in Tucson) and Fuddruckers v. Flakey Jake's.

Ironically, the Flakey Jake's in Tempe, Arizona turned into a Studebaker's, which has been involved in similar disputes...

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_...

By: Tim Lee

Tim Lee — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:33:30 +0000

If the guy had signed an explicit contract, then I agree this would be a different question. But a simple verbal agreement—especially when the recipe in question was previously copied from yet another restaurant—doesn’t seem substantial enough to me to be the subject of a trade secret, although I admit I’m not an expert on the minutia of New York trade secret law. And certainly a lot of the details she’s suing over, like the granite countertops and the paint colors, are not trade secrets since they’re visible to every customer.

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:12:14 +0000

Tim: You should go after this Tom Lee guy for stealing your ideas. (Or should he go after you?)

By: Jim Lippard

Jim Lippard — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 16:09:45 +0000

Restaurant “look and feel” lawsuits (about restaurant decor and menu, rather than recipes) already hit the big time with Taco Cabana v. Two Pesos (a case that resulted in the demise of Two Pesos, which was a restaurant I enjoyed visiting as a grad student in Tucson) and Fuddruckers v. Flakey Jake’s.

Ironically, the Flakey Jake’s in Tempe, Arizona turned into a Studebaker’s, which has been involved in similar disputes…

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3190/is_v19/ai_3738632

By: bradencox

bradencox — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:33:43 +0000

If someone agrees to be hired, trained and employed by a chef–and voluntarily sings an agreement that he won’t take the recipes and run to compete against his employer–this is a matter of contract law and an ex-employee that violates this agreement should be sued for breach of contract.

But from an IP perspective, we know from Coke and its formula that trade secrets can apply to recipes, though maybe trade secrets law does not apply where all chefs in a restaurant know a recipe.

By: Tim Lee

Tim Lee — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:33:30 +0000

By: Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:44:55 +0000

This is actually quite amazing, because there's very little question that the lack of copyright in cooking has not impaired innovation at all, and most likely the opposite. Same is true for other industries like fashion.

If copyright becomes the rule in the cooking world, Stallman is going to be quite upset because he sure likes the analogy between software development and cooking.

Cheers,

By: Braden

Braden — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 14:33:43 +0000

But from an IP perspective, we know from Coke and its formula that trade secrets can apply to recipes, though maybe trade secrets law does not apply where all chefs in a restaurant know a recipe.

By: Carlos

Carlos — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 13:44:55 +0000

If copyright becomes the rule in the cooking world, Stallman is going to be quite upset because he sure likes the analogy between software development and cooking.

Cheers,