The bizarre story of Trump’s plagiarized inauguration cake

There have been plenty of arguments over the years here at BoingBoing by the folks that run this place decrying the ability to copyright food.

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#AlternateCakes MEDIA LIE!
Trump’s cake was LARGEST INAUGURATION PARTY CAKE in the history of the country.
Anyone who claims otherwise is trying to delegitimize Trump’s historic landslide victory of both the popular and electoral vote.

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Has anyone considered the possibility that whoever ordered the cake on behalf of the Armed Forces ball was basically trolling Trump? It’s entirely possible that the person who was assigned the task is not a Trump fan, and thought this would be an amusing thing to do . . .

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Quite possible. I’m too busy being amused that it happened to really think about why it happened.

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I don’t mean active duty service members becoming president or Secdef. I am speaking of The President as part of the chain of command. It does not mean that he has to go to boot camp or wear a uniform. He remains a civilian, but at the same time, he is commander of all US Military forces.
The distinction is that the President can order a deployment or strike, even in times of peace. Previously, he would have required a Chief of Staff to give the order. It probably seems like a minor detail, but it is important for those who get and disseminate the orders.

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Reminiscent of the plastic Thanksgiving turkeys used for photo ops in US military bases in Iraq during the Bush years.

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With all due credit to Hunter Thompson, I’m surprised that Trump didn’t request a giant cake from which would emerge half a dozen ten-foot bull dykes sporting pasties on their nipples.

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Please, please, PLEASE tell me there was a second secret ceremony involving Russian hookers.

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The Trump Presidency, by Ogden Nash.

"Let them eat cake."
Oh, it’s fake.

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Did a flight of mostly alive pigeons flop out after the cake was cut with that sword?

Next up: drumpf striking obama’s name from the history textbooks.

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I for one would love to have a cake bazooka.

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Suspicion is a very likely reaction. Another reaction would be an assertion that he’s spotted a “weakness” (normal decent behavior) and from there would emerge some despicable, self-serving action to take advantage of that “weakness”.

As per your own link that’s in GERMANY. Also there’s no end of people claiming copyright and trademark on recipes and platings but it seldom works in court. Especially here in the us. Because while copyright of the written work is allowed, and trademarks of names and images are allowed. There is no mechanism in the US and most countries to copyright actual techniques, methods, or dishes described by those means. Other wise you’d have some one copyrighting spaghetti and meatballs and everyone would be fucked.

You could make that case. And there are sculptors who work with food and even specifically cake. But if you attempt to protect your cake work that way you’re opening yourself to challenge on the grounds that is food. So if your booking it as a catering work for hire. If its intended to be eaten (even in part). If its not displayed in a gallery. And so on and so forth. So far as I know there is no provision for copyrighting or trademarking food itself, a preparation, a technique, or a design/plating/presentation of said food in American IP law. And such a law would make the restaurant business collapse.

If you could copyright food as sculpture. Well this hamburger is awfully sculptural…

https://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl122.html

Note the Guardian’s correction there. While it is possible, theoretically to patent a food item if its sufficiently inovative. I’m not aware of examples that don’t involve some substantive process for creating new food items. Like say a method/device to manufacture puffed corn snacks as in Cheetos. But you can’t do anything to assert ownership of puffed corn snacks themselves. You can’t assert ownership of all puffed corn snacks. But you can copyright a written description of how to make puffed corn snacks. And so forth. So far as I’m aware these same standards apply to presentation/plating of food. And there by decoration of cakes, cookies and the like. That’s why Oreo trademarks their logo and designs stamped onto cookies and not the base concept of chocolate sandwich cookies.

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no

but so fitting that Trump had a fake cake that was all show and tasted like styrofoam his favorite flavor.

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No. I have been around members of the military. That is not how they think. Especially for something important like this.

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I think the cake looked nice. I don’t see the point of telling the world that it was the same as Obama’s cake, cause I know I for one wouldn’t have noticed. They could’ve made the cake and donated the money without all the drama.

The hooker pee is what made the cake design Trump’s rather than Obama’s.

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I think you’re confused. It wasn’t the same person making the same cake. It was a different person re-creating a fake version of the cake.

The guy who made the original cake was all like, “Hey, does this cake look familiar to y’all? Like exactly the same as the cake I made 4 years ago?”

And the new guy was all like: “Yeah, nice cake, it was a direct request from the customer, also we’re sending all the proceeds to Human Rights Campaign.” (I wonder the “HRC” initials factored into that decision!) So the original cake maker was like: “Oh, OK, that’s cool.”

All we’re doing now is mocking Trump for using the same cake design as Obama, but making it fake this time.

There’s not really any drama involved.

Now you are all caught up.

Edit: Welcome to BoingBoing BBS!

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Who is “they”?

The drama was started because a celebrity chef was bemused that his design for a high profile event was carbon copied for the same event years by someone else. I can’t say I blame him for pointing this out. The shop that made the cake handled things pretty well saying they were specifically asked to replicate the original design and that they are donating the proceeds to charity.

I don’t see what you’re so Concerned about here.

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