A legal row has broken out over the secret recipe for spice burgers.
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 company claims Mr Walsh, of St Canice's Road, Glasnevin in Dublin, has the recipe and is using it to produce and sell his own version of the burger, which it is claimed he is passing off as the original.
The appointment in June of a receiver to Walsh Family Foods Limited, which was the creator and sole manufacturer of the spice burger, seemed to spell the end of the popular 50 year old product.
However, following an unprecedented public reaction, the receiver decided to continue manufacturing the product.
But now the company has taken High Court proceedings over the secret recipe for the burger, which it says is known by very few.
It claims that in April former shareholder and director, Patrick Walsh, obtained the secret spice mix recipe from an ingredients company which blends it for Walsh Family Foods.
Walsh Family Foods claims Mr Walsh then used it to manufacture a burger identical to theirs and has sold it to their customers.
Mr Walsh's solicitors say he has not been employed by Walsh Family Foods since 2005, and as a result is no longer precluded from using information he obtained while working there. He also claims his new burger uses a different recipe.
Mr Justice McCarthy granted the company an interim injunction restraining Mr Walsh from deleting or destroying the recipe or any confidential information belonging to Walsh Family Foods, ahead of another hearing on Thursday.
