Can the taste of a particular food product be copyrighted? Last week, a court in the European Union answered that question, holding that food producers may not copyright the taste of their foods. The case had pitted two Dutch herbed cream cheese spread makers—Heksenkaas (“witches’ cheese”) and Witte Wievenkaas (“wise women’s cheese”)—against each other.
Generally, copyright protects works and expressions—songs, movies, etc.—rather than ideas. But the makers of Heksenkaas, first produced in 2007, claimed their competitor’s cheese, Witte Wievenkaas, a budget competitor that debuted in 2014, tasted exactly like Heksenkaas and claimed the latter had infringed on its copyright on the taste of Heksenkaas.
These kinds of cases can narrow consumer rights by limiting our choices, writes Baylen Linnekin. Luckily for the budget cheese eaters of the Netherlands, as well as the rest of the European Union, the court ruled that a food’s taste cannot be “pinned down” with the kind of “precision and objectivity” necessary for Heksenkaas to push a competitor out of the market.
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