The very first thing you should do when putting together your food truck business plan or continuing operations, is to secure your food truck’s marketplace identity, creative efforts and branding. As you prepare to debut your food truck, you are likely going over lots of legal logistics to make sure that your business is set up for success. Chances are, you’ve already made sure that you have already procured the proper licenses to prepare and sell food and have set up the proper tax information to make sure that you are operating within the law. But what about your intellectual property? What parts of your business can you protect from your competition? What can you expect going forward?
Make Sure To Trademark Your Special Dish!!
One of the first questions you may have is if you can trademark the names of my food entrees — and the answer is yes. You can trademark the name of any dish that you don’t want your competition to use in connection with their food. Absent protecting the creative names of your culinary offerings, your competition can offer food using the same branding!! The important thing to keep in mind is that not all brand names can be protected in connection with food and drink. Make sure to consult the attorneys of Garcia-Zamor prior to finalizing special entree names so that you can prevent the competition from copying the names of all of your offerings. This is important to keep in mind when trying to secure consumer loyalty in a ultra competitive food truck environment. Failure to protect your creativity with the proper intellectual property makes it easy for other food trucks to copy everything you have created without investing any time and creative energy in the process. This allows your competition to increase their profits while taking over your reputation in the marketplace.
What About My Recipes?
Recipes cannot be trademarked, but that doesn’t mean you can’t protect your recipes at all. Your recipes can be protected as a trade secret, meaning that others can only offer the same foods if they independently created the same recipe or if they reverse engineer it just from tasting your food! WHILE NOT ENOUGH BY ITSELF – it is necessary to have anyone who has access to your recipes and food preparation location and techniques sign a detailed contract. It is critical to contact the attorneys of Garcia-Zamor to prepare the contract and set up the required supplemental safeguards and procedures.
What About Menus?
Your menu is what will make your food truck yours — and these should be protected by copyright law. Menus are original works, characterized by the layout of the menu and the descriptions of the dishes that are offered – as well as any logos and designs. They are considered a creative work that reflects the way you want your food and drink offerings to be represented.
Garcia-Zamor Can Help!
Even if you are a master in the kitchen, in food truck design, and in establishing great customer relations, you may need help navigating intellectual property laws to secure your rights to the maximum extent possible under the law. Fortunately, the attorney team at Garcia-Zamor is here to use our decades of experience to help you protect your hard work as you launch your food truck business. You can focus on making your truck and recipes shine while we guide you through how you can protect your intellectual property and pursue litigation if you need it.
