KFC ‐ Patents, trademarks and designs

Initially, KFC relied heavily on patents that protected its unique method for deep frying chicken without drying it out. These original patents have since expired and been substituted with equipment‐specific patents. Increasingly, KFC trades off the global reputation in its trademarks, while continuing to paint a mirage of alluring know‐how in its secret mix of "11 herbs and spices".

KFC Know-how

Reportedly, Sanders' secret recipe of "11 herbs and spices" is KFC's most valuable intellectual property. But, this is just marketing-speak. Although, the precise composition of Sanders' recipe remains "secret", the KFC breading material is believed to comprise:

Unlike KFC's cooking process, this mix of herbs and spices has no "technical effect" and was never patentable. In any event, when it comes to a recipe (as compared to a cooking process), a "perpetual secret" is always better than a 20‐year patent ‐ KFC took a leaf out of Coke's book written 66 years earlier.

KFC Trademarks:

Obviously, you may not use "KFC", "Kentucky Fried Chicken" or an image of an old man with a goatee and string bowtie.

Also, keep a wide berth of:

• the pay-off lines "It's finger lickin' good" / "FLG" / "So Good"
• references to "the Colonel's"
• KFC Li'l bucket meal
• KFC Snacker
• Twister
• Kentucky Nuggets
• Zinger (in some countries)
• Fast Track (for mobile ordering)

Surprisingly, in most countries, you may refer to "Bucket", "Rounder", "Streetwise" and "Mashies".

KFC Patents:

Method patents:

Drum roll … this is KFC's foundational patent:

US3245800 "Process for producing fried chicken under pressure":

• Cut raw chicken into serving pieces
• Coat the pieces with a moist breading material
• Wholly immerse the pieces in a bath of oil heated in a pressure cooker to 350‐400F
• Hermetically close the pressure cooker
• Reduce the temperature of the oil rapidly to 250‐275F
• Cook pieces for about 2 minutes while increasing pressure to 15 psi above atmospheric pressure
• Continue cooking pieces (at the same pressure and temperature) for about 8 minutes

Technical benefit: the 15 psi pressure is sufficiently close to the "vapour pressure" of water at 250F to substantially prevent boiling away of moisture from the chicken and breading material. It is this technical benefit that made KFC's deep frying process "inventive" and, therefore, patentable.

US5721001 "Fried food producing method and apparatus therefor":

• Insert food into a closed bottom cooking tray
• Place the cooking tray in a processing tank
• Charge and maintain a flow of heated cooking oil at a given flow rate laterally into and across the cooking tray
• Immerse the food in the oil to fry the food while allowing the oil to overflow a side of the cooking tray
• discharge the oil from the tray upon the lapse of a predetermined immersing time

US5185172 "Method for simulating open flame broiled meat products":

• Coat a grill with a caramelizing layer
• Clamp meat between the grill and a pan having an alternating series of crows and reservoirs, to provide a uniform meat thickness between an upper portion of the pan crows and the grill
• Transport the clamped meat past heated upper and lower air jets to uniformly cook the meat by simultaneously:
  (i) impinging the heated air jets against the meat;
  (ii) heating the pan crows to transfer heat to the meat by conduction;
  (iii) collecting expressed juices and fat in the pan reservoirs; and
  (iv) charring and transferring the caramelized layer from the grill to the meat to emulate burn marks from open flame grilling.

US5246719 "Process of preparing a batter‐free breaded poultry product":

• Adhere to the surface of a piece of uncooked poultry a dust of ungelatinized, high gluten flour free of batter‐forming components and which is not capable of forming a continuous film of batter when it is applied to the surface
• Hydrate the dust under conditions which render the hydrated dust capable of adhering to breading
• Adhere breading to the hydrated dust,

wherein the product that is produced does not bear a layer of batter.

US5077065 "Method for extending the holding time for cooked food":

• Cook the food for 15‐20 minutes
• Confine the food in a closed chamber for a holding time 12‐18 times the duration of the cooking time; maintaining an atmospheric environment of a relative humidity within the range of about 70 to 95% under controlled dry bulb and wet bulb temperature conditions within the chamber
• concurrently regulate the temperature in the chamber to a minimum level

Packaging patents:

KFC only registered patents for its composite bucket and interactive box:

Equipment patents:

KFC has various patents that cover its unique cooking equipment, including: pressurized cooking system, pumping system, hot oil recirculating system, deep fat frying system, pressure release valve, frying equipment, cooking apparatus (x2), oven (all since expired), rotisserie and griddle:

KFC Designs:

As would be expected, KFC's designs focus on its unique packaging items:

Note: KFC has no rights over a "bucket".