Can You Patent a Pizza?

Gastropod

Cynthia Graber and Nicola Twilley

Science, Food, History, Arts

4.7 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2024

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Close your eyes and imagine this: a world without stuffed crust pizza. We know!—but that was the dismal state of the Italian flatbread scene before 1985, when Anthony Mongiello, aka The Big Cheese, came up with an innovation that loaded even more cheese onto pizza, while saving crusts nationwide from the trashcan. It was a multi-million dollar idea, Mongiello was sure—if only he could figure out how to protect his intellectual property and license it. But can you copyright the recipe for stuffing the crust? Could that puffy, cheese-filled rim be trademarked, or the technique for making it qualify as a trade secret? Can you patent a pizza? And did Pizza Hut, which unveiled their own stuffed crust pie in 1995, steal his idea—or does the concept of a cheesy crust belong to humanity as a whole? This episode, we're diving deep into the weird and wonderful world of food IP, via the legendary legal battles to defend Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish, Smucker's Uncrustables, and that futuristic mall treat of the 90s, Dippin' Dots ice cream. Listen in now for the true story of stuffed crust pizza—a story in which creativity, commerce, and lots and lots of cheese collide. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	All right, so my name is Anthony and my last name is Mongello, aka the Big Cheese, because I've been in the cheese business for 32 years of my adult life, but the truth is I am and
0:16.1	always will be the creator and originator of stuffed crust pizza.
0:22.1	Listen kids, stuffed crust pizza may seem like it's always been around, but I am old enough to remember a world without it.
0:30.0	A world before the stuffed crust pizza was invented.
0:33.8	And inventing food, that's what we're all about this episode.
0:37.0	We of course are Gastropod, the podcast that looks at food through the lens of science and
0:40.4	history.
0:41.4	I'm Cynthia Graber.
0:42.0	And I'm Nicola Twilly, and this episode we've got the shocking true story of how Pizza Hut stole the stuffed crust idea from the guy who invented it. Or did they? Because wait, can you actually own the idea of something
0:55.8	like stuffed crust pizza? And like if you say you invented it, as Anthony claims, how can you
1:00.6	prove it? If you're a scientist who comes up with a new drug there are laws to allow you and only you to make it.
1:08.0	If you're a singer who writes a new song there are laws to make sure no one else can release that song without your permission.
1:14.7	But if you're a chef or even just a humble home cook who comes up with the next great thing
1:19.5	in food, what do you do?
1:21.5	We've got the stories of stuffed crust pizza,
1:23.5	Pudgy the whale, KFC's secret recipe, and more to help get to the bottom of this.
1:28.0	This episode was funded in part by the Sloan Foundation for the Public
1:31.6	Understanding of Science Technology Technology and Economics, and
1:34.1	by our fantastic supporters.
1:36.0	Thanks to you all.
1:37.0	Gastropod is part of the Vox Media Podcast Network in partnership with Eater.
1:40.7	Speaking of Eater, you love them and we love them for their restaurant
	...

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