A chicken sandwich cannot be copyrighted, judge rules

There are many things you can copyright, but a chicken sandwich is not one of them, a US appeals court judge ruled Friday.

Because of the ruling, a former employee of a fried chicken franchise is not entitled to a percentage of the profits from a sandwich he "authored," wrote Chief Judge Jeffrey Howard of the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. The plaintiff, Norberto Colón Lorenzana, had filed a complaint seeking "All the earnings produced by his creation"—an amount not less than $10 million.

"The sandwich consists of a fried chicken breast patty, lettuce, tomato, American cheese, and garlic mayonnaise on a bun," the judge wrote. Colón had claimed that both the recipe and the name of the so-called Pechu Sandwich "is a creative work, of which he is the author," the judge noted.