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Decoder with Nilay Patel

Can you patent a pizza?

Decoder with Nilay Patel

Vox Media Podcast Network

Technology, Business

4.33.2K Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2024

⏱️ 58 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Hey everyone it’s Nilay – I’m on vacation this week, so the Decoder team is taking a short break. We’ll be back next week with both the interview and the new explainer episodes. To tide you over until Monday, we have a bonus episode from our friends at Vox Media and Eater’s Gastropod about an incredible patent battle in the world of pizza. I’m serious: One of the biggest fights in the pizza industry took place in US court in the ‘90s — an intellectual property dispute about stuffed crust pizza between Pizza Hut and patent holder Anthony “The Big Cheese” Mongiello. So much of what we talk about on Decoder comes down to IP lawsuits like copyright or patent disputes, and how judges decide those cases and where the law ends up can steer the course of history. And that’s true whether we’re talking about a line of code, the distribution method of an MP3, or, yes, even stuffed crust pizza. Links: Can You Patent a Pizza? — Gastropod Ivana and Donald Trump Pizza Hut Commercial — YouTube The Next Big Thing in Pizza? Try 'Stuffed Crust' — NYT Who Created the Stuffed Crust Pizza? It's Complicated. — Eater Method of making a pizza — Google Patents Credits: Decoder is a production of The Verge, and part of the Vox Media Podcast Network. Today’s episode was produced by Kate Cox and Nick Statt and was edited by Callie Wright. Our supervising producer is Liam James. The Decoder music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:26.8

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0:40.0

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0:45.8

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0:51.7

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0:56.0

your existing systems and yes to accelerating growth.

1:00.3

Visit Service Now.com to see how we can help you put yes to work.

1:05.0

The world works with Service Now.

1:10.0

Hey everybody, it's NELI. I'm on vacation this week week so the Decoder team is taking a short break.

1:14.8

We'll be back next week with both the interview and our new explainer episodes. We have an

1:19.2

incredible schedule coming up. I am very excited to share all this with you. To tie you over until Monday

1:23.8

though we have a bonus episode from our friends at Vox Media and Eaters Gastropod

1:28.0

about an incredible patent battle in the world of pizza. I'm serious, one of the biggest fights in the pizza industry took place in court in the 90s,

1:37.0

an intellectual property dispute about stuffed crust pizza.

1:41.0

This is so very decoder, I love it the most. As you'll hear how Cynthia Graber and

1:45.2

Nicholas will he describe it, stuffed crust pizza is a multi-million dollar idea, most notably

1:50.1

for Pizza Hut, which launched it in 1995, with a commercial featuring none other than Donald Trump.

1:56.0

But did Pizza Hut steal this idea?

1:58.0

And what does it even mean to own the idea for stuffed crust pizza?

2:02.0

At the heart of this dispute is Cheesemaker named Anthony

...

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