Meal Innovations
Intellectual property issues
The following questions were put to Ana Tuimana, Production Manager at Meal Innovations, in late 2007 by Susan Corbett, of Victoria University of Wellington, as part of her study, Intellectual property in Technology teaching, identifying intellectual property implications and issues that emerge from selected Techlink case studies. Their replies take the form of edited reported speech.
- Does Meal Innovations have a registered trade mark?
- Why has the company chosen not to register a trade mark?
- Does the company have any kind of branding or mark that it uses to identify its range of products?
- Does the chef develop any new and original recipes that might have copyright protection?
- Does Meal Innovations design its own packaging?
- What characteristics are incorporated into the packaging to ensure the company's products stand out from competitors' products on the supermarket shelves?
- In conclusion...
No, although they have traded under the names Meal Innovations and Hester Guy Salad.
The salads were already made under the name Hester Guy and it was known through the supermarket chain. Registering a new trade mark for the company itself would mean starting again (to build up a reputation in the business).
No, most of the products we put out are bulk produced. The ready to eat meals are made under contract for another company. Progressive Enterprises, and sold under the brand (also a registered trade mark) 2GO®.
There are no copyright
protections specifically stated on our recipes. However the chef has developed new and original recipes for us and those are likely to be automatically protected by copyright. This protection only prevents a competitor from copying out the actual printed recipe – it does not stop anyone making the food product.
Old recipes are destroyed when they are replaced by new recipes. I guess we don't feel threatened by our competitors – although they sometimes sell similar products these do not taste like genuine Meal Innovations products.
We were limited when it came to designing our own packaging. For most of our big contracts the packaging has been pre-designed for us and we are required to use it. However, we have started our own range called Metabolize for which we have designed a label, as well as meals for Foodstuffs, and the DINZ range for motels.
The most important characteristic considered, when designing our own packaging, was the colour and how it would stand out under the supermarket lighting. We looked at fresh colour to emphasize our aim, which is to provide fresh products.
"Our aim as a food company is to provide fresh food, whether it is salads or meals with a traditional home-made feel to them.”
