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Shhh ... it's a secret, as spicy burgers go to court

By Johanna Gibson, David Pearce, Jeremy Phillips and Ilanah Simon.

Thanks are due to the IPKat's friend Gemma O'Farrell for sending him this item from the Irish Times, entitled "Legal row over recipe for spice burger". According to this article,

"The makers of the spice burger have secured a number of [interim] High Court injunctions against a former director who it is claimed has been passing off burgers made by him as their product.

Walsh Family Foods Limited have sought the orders against one of its former directors Patrick Walsh, .. the son of the person credited with inventing popular chipper staple [the IPKat is unfamiliar with this term, which has no corresponding Wikipedia entry. An internet search revealed just 47 'hits', so it may be an obscure Irish term of art ...], and is one of the few people who knows the burger's secret recipe. ...

The injunctions restrain Mr Walsh from destroying any information or interfering with any of the companies property, in particular any documentation sent by the suppliers of ingredients for the spice burger. ...

The orders also restrain Mr Walsh deleting or destroying any confidential information that relate to any scope of the company?s business acquired by Mr Walsh during his employment with or in his capacity as a director of the company. ...

Mr Walsh, counsel said, sells the burgers as ?Paddy Walsh Spice Burgers,? and the ?Original Spice Burger Company?.

Those actions, counsel claimed, are in breach of the provisions of his contract of employment, which prevents him from revealing any trade secrets to any group or company. ...

[Evidence was given] that the spice burgers being made by Mr Walsh look indistinguishable from those made by the company [The Kat wonders whether this was on the basis of the ECJ's beloved "global appreciation" basis, or was there a burger-for-burger comparison of individual characteristics. Merpel wonders whether, strictly speaking, the burger is just the bit in the middle, the bun being merely an outer casing] [but] that Mr Walsh had re-introduced MSG into the product to give it a slightly stronger flavour"".

Speculation is rife as to whether counsel for the parties belong to the Burger Bar ...
Wikipedia on burgers here
Spice burger recipes with video here
Kangaroo burger here
Warren Burger here

Full post as published by IPKat on August 26, 2009 (boomark / email).