Copyright law is clear that lists of ingredients that make up a recipe cannot be registered, but other aspects of the recipe are a possibility, such as accompanying descriptions, illustrations, and explanations, if they are original expressions. Elizabeth LaBau of the recipe site SugarHero.com believes her how-to video for snow globe cupcakes meets the standard for copyright protection, and she is suing Food Network for copyright infringement after a similar video was posted on its Facebook page.
According to the complaint, which was filed on June 1st in the United States District Court for the Central District of California, LaBau is a pastry chef who has developed a website, brand and social media presence under the name SugarHero, transitioning it from a passion project to her full-time job. She manages every aspect of her business herself, including recipe development, photography, writing, and video creation. She typically receives 300,000-500,000 page views a month, and SugarHero was chosen as Editor’s Choice Best Baking Blog by Better Homes & Gardens in 2015. The site has also been featured in major media outlets, including Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, Food & Wine, Chicago Tribune, and more.
The snow globe cupcakes are described as one of LaBau’s most successful ideas. It involved using gelatin sheets and small water balloons to create edibles globes to put on holiday cupcakes. LaBau tested the recipe extensively over the course of several weeks to perfect it. She first published it on her website in 2014, and it went viral the following year, after a Facebook post was shared 740,000 times in a few days. SugarHero received half a million hits an hour during that time as well. At this point, she decided to create a video to demonstrate preparation in late 2016, in the lead-up to Christmas. The video was shared 114,000 times and received more than 5.6 million views in three weeks. Shortly thereafter, LaBau became aware of a video on Food Network’s Facebook page, published on December 22nd, illustrating the preparation of snow globe cupcakes. She alleges that several elements of her work were copied, including camera angles, lighting, colors, choices of shots, and more. On December 26, 2016, LaBau contacted Food Network requesting credit and attribution, but she never received a response and the video was not removed.
At the time of the suit, the video was still available on Food Network’s Facebook page, and it has received at least 145,000 likes and more than 11 million views.
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“In copying her work shot-for-shot, Defendants willfully and intentionally sought to appropriate Plaintiff’s hard work for their own profit without bearing the cost thereof. The time commitment of recipe development and the cost of ingredients, coupled with the time cost of photographing and videoing the cupcakes, was a substantial investment for Plaintiff, an individual who runs a website based solely on her own work,” the complaint states. LaBau, who owns the copyright registration for her snow globe cupcake how-to video, is asking the court to temporarily, preliminarily and permanently enjoin Food Network from displaying the video on their Facebook page.
The case is Elizabeth LaBau v. Television Food Network, Central District of California, 2:17-cv-04077.
For more information on this case, please stay tuned to The Fried Firm Blog.
