Can You Patent a Pizza?

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
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