A legal row is underway over the secret recipe for a uniquely Irish product, the spice burger.
Walsh Family Foods Limited, which has produced the burger for over 50 years, has taken High Court proceedings seeking to restrain a former director and owner of the company, Patrick Walsh from using the recipe.
The popular spice burger. A uniquely Irish product.
After an unprecedented public reaction, the receiver decided to continue to manufacture the spice burger which is made using a closely guarded secret spice mix.
The receiver claims that former director and shareholder Patrick Walsh obtained via email the secret spice mix recipe from the company which provided the blend for Walsh Family Foods. The company claim that Mr Walsh used the recipe to manufacture a spice burger identical to theirs passing it off as the original.
Solicitors for Mr Walsh claimed he had not been employed by Walsh Family Foods since 2005, and was no longer precluded from using information he obtained while working there. They claim Mr Walsh's new burger uses a different recipe. They also deny that Mr Walsh solicited customers of Walsh Family Foods saying instead that customers had approached him urging him to fill the void left by the company's demise.
Mr Justice McCarthy granted the company an interim injunction restraining Patrick Walsh from deleting or destroying the recipe or any confidential information belonging to it, ahead of another hearing.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 25 August 2009. The reporter is Will Goodbody.
