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On Monopolies, Fine Dining and Feeding the Masses in California’s First Gilded Age

By Paul D. Swanson

February 7, 2020

Every generation tackles old problems anew. Abject homelessness, “radicalized” socialists, tyrant capitalists, gilded-age life-styles and monopolistic practices may seem like current news, but they were omnipresent in the first Gilded Age in California, circa the 1890s. A “naturalistic” writer, Frank Norris, surveyed this landscape through his novel The Octopus: A Story of California (1901). Its themes revolve around the railroad systems’ ability to exercise cartel control over California ranchers and farmers by the late 19th century. …

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What’s in a Name?: On Filberts, Hazelnut Milk, Shredded Wheat and Food Identity Standards

By Paul D. Swanson

September 26, 2019

Defying a family trend around our dining table, I refused to call oleomargarine by its shorthand substitute, butter, in my early teens. I abhorred its fake butter taste on toast or corn-on-the-cob. Chastised as a finicky eater, I became a butter purity activist in my tiny domain of one. Food names matter, neuro-psychologically. As Apicius, an early Roman gourmand put it, “We eat first with our eyes.” Scientists theorize that “the smells and flavor of…

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The Copyrightable Firepower of Hedonic Food Consumption

By Paul D. Swanson

May 8, 2019

Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure and sensual self-indulgence. When applied to food, we conjure up high-priced luxuries like the Italian white Alba truffle—the “Mozart of mushrooms”—or the French black Périgord truffle—the “black magic apple of love.” Hedonic food consumption is vivid—hence memorable. As we chew and swallow fine foodstuffs, we express satisfaction in facial expressions and vocal utterances. When hosts of the Food Channel’s The Best Thing I Ever Ate reminisce about glorious meals,…

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The Recipe Copyright Title Bout of the 20th Century: Olney vs. Nelson vs. Beard

By Paul D. Swanson

November 15, 2018

Richard Olney’s The French Menu Cookbook (1970) and Simple French Food (1974) profoundly shaped American food trends in the 20th century—mostly behind the scenes. They inspired Alice Waters as she launched Chez Panisse, igniting a fresh California cuisine revolution. She, James Beard and Julia Child would all make regular pilgrimages to Olney’s hermitage dwelling in Provence to dine with this genius of the palate. Success spawns copycats. The culprit here is Richard Nelson’s American Cooking (1983).…

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The Scientific-Sounding Bar to Patenting Food Compositions and Marketing Around Innate Rejection of Novel Foods

By Paul D. Swanson

August 28, 2018

Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful composition of matter may potentially obtain a United States patent. When it comes to food compositions, however, this seemingly broad scope of patentability is judicially tempered. Novel foods are not patentable unless they demonstrate a “coaction or cooperative relationship between the selected ingredients which produces a new, unexpected and useful function.” In reality, patent applicants find it difficult to satisfy this scientific-sounding rule. Even if an inventor…

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On Oregon Black Truffles, Scent Marketing and Neuropsychological Food Cravings

By Paul D. Swanson

July 19, 2018

Truffles mushrooms reside in a Holy Grail land of taste preference. They call to mind ancient French banquet meals and rural truffle hunters and their dogs. Scarce and expensive, the truffle industry satisfies market demand by bottling their musky scent in so-called truffle oils. The Pacific Northwest is an unsung truffle backwater—when compared to the famous truffle growing regions of Périgord, France and Alba, Italy. Most residents never see, smell nor taste our region’s outstanding…

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A Bourbon Pecan Pie Fest of Plant Patents, Copyright “Originality” and Soiled Chef Brands

By Paul D. Swanson

March 28, 2018

Pecans are a microcosm of Americana. “As the Stuart Pecan Company would brag in 1893: ‘We [Americans] have rightfully a monopoly upon the nut.’”[1] Wild pecan trees proliferate in riverine ecosystems coursing through the southern United States. Their domesticated, often patented counterparts now satisfy huge consumer demand for these indigenous nuts, once vital to tribal commerce. Indeed, the name pecan is derived “from an Algonquin word meaning, loosely translated, ‘a nut too hard to…

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The Intellectual Property Allure of Truffle Mushrooms

By Paul D. Swanson

January 31, 2018

White Alba truffles from the Piedmont region of Italy—and black winter truffles from Périgord, France—are a fount of gastronomic legends. A black truffle and foie gras soup, served with a puff pastry topping, is the signature recipe of the late, great French chef, Paul Bocuse. My first indelible taste of a White Alba truffle came shaved atop a Carnaroli Risotto Biologico with a Castelmagno Mousse, served at Per Se, Chef Thomas Keller’s restaurant in Manhattan—at…

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A Thanksgiving of Patentable Nuts and Vintage Nutcrackers

By Paul D. Swanson

November 20, 2017

No, this post is not about the Thanksgiving antics of eccentric relatives. Rather, it describes patented varieties of almonds, walnuts and pecans they may crack open with vintage nutcrackers—making a gleeful mess before dinner is served. Tree nuts still resist the specific varietal trademark branding now associated with former fruit commodities, such as the Pink Lady® or forthcoming Cosmic Crisp™ apples. Patent rights in undifferentiated fruit or vegetable produce usually focus on solving grower or industry facing…

Earth & Table

From Honeycrisp to SweeTango: How Apple Plant Patents Liberated the American Palate

By Paul D. Swanson

September 20, 2017

Autumn spells and smells of apples. Nowadays, newly patented apple varieties promise to dazzle our taste buds anew as fall harvests come in from our nation’s orchards. It was not always so. As a reminder, I recently bit into a nice-looking Red Delicious apple taken from a bowl of fresh fruit in our law firm reception area. A mealy, sickly-sweet mash with leathery skin fragments stayed unchewed in my mouth—until I could race to the…

Earth & Table

Law Reporter

Blog Authors

On Monopolies, Fine Dining and Feeding the Masses in California’s First Gilded Age

What’s in a Name?: On Filberts, Hazelnut Milk, Shredded Wheat and Food Identity Standards

The Copyrightable Firepower of Hedonic Food Consumption

The Recipe Copyright Title Bout of the 20th Century: Olney vs. Nelson vs. Beard

The Scientific-Sounding Bar to Patenting Food Compositions and Marketing Around Innate Rejection of Novel Foods

On Oregon Black Truffles, Scent Marketing and Neuropsychological Food Cravings

A Bourbon Pecan Pie Fest of Plant Patents, Copyright “Originality” and Soiled Chef Brands

The Intellectual Property Allure of Truffle Mushrooms

A Thanksgiving of Patentable Nuts and Vintage Nutcrackers

From Honeycrisp to SweeTango: How Apple Plant Patents Liberated the American Palate

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