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Posted on: 30 November 2015

Can you put your aunt's super-secret Thanksgiving Leftover Turkey Hash recipe online without getting sued? Do copyright laws extend to recipes? Here's what you should know.

Your aunt is probably going to be angry about this.

This will probably infuriate your aunt, but if you have her recipe, you're legally free to post it all over the internet and share it with as many people as you want. Copyright laws don't protect the ingredient list. In fact, the U.S. Copyright Office warns cooks everywhere that they should think twice if they have a secret ingredient to a recipe that they don't want to be made public before even trying to copyright it -- because the recipe would become a matter of public record and the secret ingredient can be copied into other recipes and published from there.

You also have the freedom to use the same name for the recipe if you want. As a general rule, names and titles can't be copyrighted, whether they belong to recipes or not.

You can also post the instructions.

It's also safe to publish the basic procedures used to make the dish. That means that any factual information necessary to complete the recipe can be included:

• preheat the oven to 400 degrees

• butter the pan to keep the hash from sticking

• the egg must evenly coat the ingredients

The more clearly factual the information, the better, as far as being within the law.

You do have to watch for unique content.

If your aunt's secret recipe (or collection of recipes) was passed down in the family, it could contain "substantial literary expression" if they're original expressions. For example, if your aunt included descriptions of her results that illustrate her particular flair for the dramatic, you can't publish those.

How would this work in practical terms? You could publish directions to the ingredients that included common cooking instructions like "lightly brown the shredded turkey." You wouldn't be allowed to copy and publish something more individualistic like "fry that turkey until it's crispy on the edges and makes your mouth water," which shows a unique and arguably original expression.

In other words, your aunt's recipes themselves are fair game. Any charming folksiness or individual expression that accompanies them has to come from you in order to be legal. You also can't publish your aunt's photos (if they exist) of her finished products or the descriptions of her results, if she noted them.

While nobody really wants to end up in a dispute with family over a recipe, you can at least rest assured that if you decide to start a food blog or publish some recipes that you've tried in a cookbook, you don't stand to be sued for taking a recipe from somewhere else and turning it into your own. As long as any original expressions in it are your own, feel free to share! If you have more questions about copyright laws and what is and isn't covered, contact a legal office like D.B. Clark Law Office.