<<Disclaimer: Verify this information before applying it to your situation.>>

Lynda Swink asked about posting a recipe to her blog.

The following is direct rom the copyright office:
   "Mere listings of ingredients as in recipes, formulas, compounds,  
or prescriptions are not subject to copyright protection. However,  
when a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary  
expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there  
is a combination of recipes, as in a cookbook, there may be a basis  
for copyright protection."

If you write up your own directions, and the ingredients are also not  
identical (as you've described), you really have nothing to worry  
about.  A recipe can't "belong" to anyone in any real sense (short of  
getting a patent on it) -- the combination of ingredients can't be  
copyrighted by anyone.  What may be copyrighted is the written  
description, directions, the arrangement of elements, layout in a  
book, and things like that.  And yes, you can mention the brand of  
flour you use, but if the brand is trademarked, you might want to  
indicate that with a TM or circled R symbol (depending on whether the  
trademark has actually registered).  This assumes that you're not  
publishing the recipe for financial gain -- for example, in a recipe  
book that you will offer for sale.  If you are doing that sort of  
thing, you should probably consult with an attorney to be sure you  
don't need to do anything else.  For posting on your blog, it's not a  
problem.  You could, if you really wanted to be cautious in the  
extreme, you could simply give an attribution to the original, say,  
something like "this recipe is my adaptation of a recipe originally  
found in Rachael Ray's cookbook", or "adapted from Aunt Jemima's  
pancake recipe".

Mark

Mark J. Rosen
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