intellectual-property european-union
Law behind copying items multiple times
<p>Hypothetical scenario: Mr. Peter creates a piece of know-how, e.g. a unique pizza recipe.</p>
<ol>
<li><p>Can he sell the recipe to more than one company?</p>
</li>
<li><p>What is called a type of contract that enables multiple different companies to be allowed to use Mr. Peter's recipe for making a pizza according to his recipe commercially?</p>
</li>
</ol>
<p>Mr. Peter lives in the European Union.</p>
<p>(It is different comparing to selling a car. Once a car is sold, it cannot be sold to other people from the original owner.)</p>
<p>Thank you.</p>

<p>I'll ignore <a href="https://www.allaboutipblog.com/2017/02/your-ip-valentine-can-recipes-be-protected-by-copyright/" rel="noreferrer">whether a <em>recipe</em> is actually a good example</a>, but I assume you're asking how a person who owns the exclusive rights to copy a thing (copyright) or to use a thing (patent) can allow multiple other entities to copy or use the thing.</p>
<p>This is possible by granting each a <em>non-exclusive licence</em>.</p>
<p>In the case that the piece of knowledge is not protected by any intellectual property regime, the holder of the information could just treat it as a secret. The information holder could enter into contracts to sell that information to various entities, each promising in return not to further disclose that information. This is the case for lots of sports data.</p>
