I had it a little bit wrong it appears. Here is part of an article from Financial Mail.
**He said he had acquired hands-on business experience when he opened a cookie store in Boston's Fanueil Market years ago and could have emerged as a nationally recognized cookie maker, if he had chosen that career path.
"It's still there, exactly as I created it," Kerry said of the store. "I could have franchised it across the country ... I had had this idea about combining it, taking it nationally, putting it into malls and supermarkets. I could have been Mr. Kerry instead of Mrs. Fields."
This article below has more detail. It looks like it wasn't the recipe that was in question between the two men, instead it was the business plan. But you may be right, there may be a separate recipe issue in this.
http://www.hillnews.com/news/012804/kerry.aspx