Protecting Your Restaurant’s Intellectual Property Is More Important Than You Think

In 2013, the inventive New York pastry chef Dominique Ansell created the Cronut, a cream-filled donut-croissant hybrid that quickly became a viral sensation across the globe.  After a food blogger wrote about the Cronut, people from all over the world started lining up outside Ansell’s bakery to buy one of the just several hundred he produced each day.  And while some of the Cronut craze has died down, as of 2016, from 60 to 100 people were still showing up every day at Ansell’s bakery to buy one.  

Ansell isn’t just famous for producing the Cronut, however—he’s also known for registering a federal trademark for the name of the unique baked good, preventing other bakeries from selling similar pastries under the same catchy name.  And while Ansell’s trademarking move caused some criticism, it turned out to be smart business on his part—he has parlayed his invention into a global food business, with two bakeries in New York, one in London, one in Japan, and a…