Make Your Own Coca-Cola And Enjoy Lawsuits
The great taste of Coca-Cola can now be yours . . . at home!
Yes, that’s right this month will forever mark the historic event when the Coca-Cola recipe was finally release online and millions the world over first began making and enjoying the iconic soft drink in the comfort of their own home, free from the manufacturer’s tyrannical prices. That, or people will just keep buying the drink from the store because you know, it’s cheaper and no one wants to figure out how to extract coca fluid from a coca leaf.
I think that the best part of this whole story is that for consumers, it actually costs more to make the drink themselves than to buy it, not to mention it’s a whole lot more difficult and time consuming to make it. Which is why it’s so funny that Coca-Cola has so vehemently denied that “This American Life” (the Ira Glass radio show that first broke the story) has the correct recipe for their sugary soda. I mean, who the hell would want to make Coca-Cola after the initial novelty of making it yourself wears off? It’s something you do once and never again. The only consequence to all of this is that if you happen to actually try to make Coca-Cola, you’ll probably never want to drink it again after seeing how much 30 plus grams of sugar actually look like.
However, the other more likely reason for Coca-Cola’s adamant response is that they are probably more afraid of other companies co-opting the formula, and bottling and selling a bastardized version of the classic soda themselves, thereby cutting into the corporate cola giant’s profits. In which case, if I were Coca-Cola, I would also probably be fuming mad at Ira Glass and company, as well. You don’t mess with a person’s meal ticket, and if you do, expect to be fought tooth and nail all the way.
Anyway, in this global market of ours having a commodity that can be exclusive called your own is a valuable asset to possess. Exclusivity means that if anyone wants what you have to offer, they’ll have to come to you to get it and that means huge profits for you.
The best example of this is the pharmaceutical industry where continued dominion over drug innovations can literally make or break a company. The cost of researching and creating the drug on top of getting FDA approval is incredibly expensive, which is why drug companies fight so hard to hold onto their patents and sue anyone who they suspect are stealing the fruits of their labor for themselves.
But the problem of corporate espionage isn’t exclusive to the drug industry. Competition is on a global scale these days and everyone from a small business owner in Topeka, KS to Coca-Cola can be susceptible to infringement of their intellectual property.
However, patent infringement is a tricky area of law, especially when it’s at an international level. In the case of Coca-Cola, they probably don’t have a valid lawsuit for infringement against “This American Life” since the show isn’t profiting from exposing Coca-Cola’s formula insofar as they aren’t manufacturing and selling a soda that infringes on Coca-Cola’s trademark (since I don’t think any company has patented their cola formula, if someone knows please tell me).
But the company could claim there were financial harms when the show released their trade secret, the Coca-Cola formula. However, by doing so Coca-Cola would be implicitly admitting the show found the correct formula. Or Coca-Cola could argue that the show found a formula that people believe is correct, but isn’t, but that the false belief has cause the company to lose money.
Ultimately though, Coca-Cola would probably not want to sue at all because the subsequent press coverage would give the supposed formula more fame and trouble than if they just had just not spoken up to begin with. See the problem now? When you sue for infringement, you can sometimes end up hurting yourself more.
Law can be a hell of a drug.
Comments
This post makes no sense, in that, you cannot both patent something AND keep it a secret. If the Coca-Cola recipe is a secret then it cannot be patented, if it is patented, then it is not a secret and anyone can go look it up anyway.
Since Coca-Cola has claimed the recipe is still secret, then it must not be patented. — (See Wikipedia on WD40 for more discussion on why you cannot patent something AND keep it a secret; further see the Coca-Cola article which claims it was sold as a “patent medicine” — and then the patent medicine article which says the same thing I just said: The term “patent medicine” is somewhat of a misnomer because, in most cases, although many of the products were trademarked, they were never patented (most avoided the patent process so as not to reveal products’ often hazardous and questionable ingredients).)
Further, I’m guessing that the recipe is copyrighted — even though it was created before automatic copyright — it has supposedly been changed since the copyright system has been modified to become automatic — making those changes automatically copyrighted.
However, in as much as you can copyright a recipe to prevent others from printing/copying it, you cannot prevent others from USING that recipe — that’s what patents are for.
You’re absolutely right Michael regarding the dilemma that befalls one that must choose between patenting their product and protecting the secret behind making it. You certainly can’t patent something and keep it secret, but if you don’t patent something, you can’t sue if someone takes it. However, if you go back and read my post, its not about Coca-Cola suing anyone for patent infringement, but rather trying to sue for infringement to their trademark and/or the release of their trade secret (the Coca-Cola formula). And though I don’t touch on the subject, the release of the formula also implicates international legal issues, most notably licensing. But that a subject for another time. Thanks for reading and feel free to keep the comments coming.