I'm just thinking out loud and nitpicking here, I don't disagree with your comment at all. I know you just meant it as an example, but writing down the ingredie

I'm just thinking out loud and nitpicking here, I don't disagree with your comment at all. I know you just meant it as an example, but writing down the ingredients and making your own batch isn't actually illegal. What I find somewhat interesting is that writing down the recipe on the back of the box and publishing it (not verbatim, but re-written) is also not illegal. I guess recipes fall under the category of things that might be patentable, but I'm not sure. It might be an interesting avenue of study and comparison for someone wanting to use it as an example to illuminate software and algorithm patents, which are often compared to recipes in intro to CS and programming textbooks. I have no idea if this is something that would yield an interesting explanation or not, as I'm not a lawyer or very well informed on patent and copyright law.