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Malaysia Seeking to Copyright Food?

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the time-to-trademark-malaysia-and-sue-for-infringement dept.

Techdirt is reporting that Malaysia seems to be jumping on the copyright/trademark bandwagon and attempting to protect the "ownership" of certain ethnic foods. Of course, this may just be a massive PR push in an attempt to grab some eyeballs. "Last year, around this time, we noted that the country of Lebanon was trying to claim that it owns hummus and other middle eastern foods, such as falafel, tabouleh and baba gannouj, and that no other country could produce them. It seems that other parts of the world are seeing the same sort of thing, as Malaysia is trying to declare that it owns popular Malaysian dishes, like nasi lemak."

6 of 330 comments (clear)

  1. no worries by bugi · · Score: 4, Funny

    Worry not, there will be cheap knockoffs coming out of China soon enough.

  2. Depends on the country and/or food. by blcamp · · Score: 3, Funny

    I don't think anyone is going to challenge Scotland's copyright of haggis.

    --
    The problem with socialism is that they always run out of other people's money. - Margaret Thatcher
    1. Re:Depends on the country and/or food. by Abcd1234 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Oh come on, give haggis a break already! It's really not that bad, and in fact has been described as having "an excellent nutty texture and delicious savoury flavour" (source of source)... 'course, as with all foods, it'll vary based on who made it.

      I urge you, give haggis a chance! I actually rather like it! Black pudding, OTOH... *shudder*

  3. RMS by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 4, Funny

    RMS has been making recipe analogies (with respect to free software) for decades. Finally, the until-recently-lawless world of cooking is catching up with the highly developed and modern law-abiding world of software. That will teach our bearded gourmet! There's no free(-as-in-speech) lunch!

    --
    Ezekiel 23:20
  4. Re:Just like Europe by LanMan04 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Let me get you a "facial tissue" to help with that runny nose.

    Oh wait, of course I meant "Kleenex".

    --
    With the first link, the chain is forged.
  5. Re:Just like Europe by spun · · Score: 3, Funny

    Look, that's just putting a band-aid on the problem. You can't just xerox a product to make an identical copy.

    --
    - None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton