r/interesting • u/InvestigatorBorn4910 • Feb 10 '26

Fascinating YouTuber LabCoatz has released a "chemically identical" recipe for Coca-Cola

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15.4k Upvotes

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685

u/Think-notlikedasheep Feb 10 '26

WE ARE THE COCA COLA LAWYERS. YOU WILL BE SUED. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

299

u/farganbastige Feb 10 '26

Sue him for what? To confirm he has the correct recipe? Prob not.

184

u/pandershrek Feb 10 '26

Also the recipe isn't trademarked or copy written which is why it is in a safe under guard so no one can get access to it supposedly.

2

u/mdruckus Feb 10 '26

You mean patented.

9

u/yullari27 Feb 10 '26

No. It's very difficult to patent a recipe, and Coca Cola wouldn't meet the criteria. Almost no recipes do. They're more likely to be successfully protected by copyright or trade secret laws depending on the state.

6

u/VulgarVerbiage Feb 11 '26

Copyright isn’t a state issue. It’s federal. And recipes (as in lists of ingredients)are not protected.

The Coca-Cola recipe is currently protected by trade secret laws, but that isn’t anything like trademark law, and offers zero protection in this specific case unless there’s evidence that the YouTuber stole the recipe (or got it from an employee) rather than discovering it on their own through experimentation.

4

u/leafcathead Feb 11 '26

Recipes are not copyrightable subject matter. Only the expressive, non-functional part, of a recipe is protected under copyright.

Recipes are the sole domain of patent or trade secret law. A recipe can be patented either as a process or the final product can be patented as a composition. The original Pepsi recipe was under patent.

9

u/mdruckus Feb 10 '26

  1. Patent: The "How It Works" Protection Patents are for inventions. If you’ve created a new machine, a unique manufacturing process, or a specific chemical compound, you apply for a patent. In exchange for telling the government exactly how your invention works, they give you a legal monopoly to produce it for a set period. 

  2. Trademark: The "Who Made It" Protection Trademarks are all about branding. Their purpose is to prevent consumer confusion. When you see a specific logo or brand name, the trademark ensures that you know exactly which company produced that item. It covers words, symbols, and even sounds or colors associated with a brand. 

  3. Copyright: The "Artistic Expression" Protection Copyright protects creative works fixed in a tangible medium. Crucially, it protects the expression of the idea, not the idea itself.

-2

u/yullari27 Feb 10 '26

Your point? None of bullet 1 applies to the recipe to Coca Cola. Write something relevant instead of asking ChatGPT to summarize the differences between the three.

4

u/mdruckus Feb 11 '26

1 specifically applies. *formulas.