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A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

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Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#11

Post by ynniv »

rayiner wrote: post #4

> The letter went on to demand that Crunchbutton stop listing Jo’s on its website; stop offering delivery service from any Brown dining establishment; stop collecting student ID numbers (for payment purposes); destroy any retained ID numbers; and stop using Brown facilities for any marketing or promotional activities. Except perhaps the first one, none of these seem unreasonable to me. The article also seems to gloss…

When your "innovation" consists of leveraging someone else's product, it's generally bad form (even if not illegal per se, unless it amounts to trademark infringement) to make it seem like you have an association with them when you don't.

I know there were recent discussions about copyrights with the Aereo decision, but come on: this company submits an order for delivery to you. THEY ARE LISTING WHAT YOU MIGHT GET. I can assure you that the manager of the shop isn't complaining about the increased business. In fact, I can't even see why there is a complaint. Perhaps this is a loss leading sandwich?

Delivering Jo's sandwiches is not Crunchbutton's core business, which is charging a premium to deliver above average food with below average hassle. If the university really wants to swing their IP around, all they will succeed in doing is making another local food business more successful. (Come to think of it, they're probably preemptively attacking Crunchbutton over something frivolous to protect their high rent on campus food service real estate.)

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#13

Post by Kylekramer »

jrockway wrote: post #3

It doesn't sound like Brown has a particularly solid case. I see no reason why an outside company can't request student ID numbers, nor can I see a problem with an outside company paying someone to go to the restaurant and pick up a bunch of sandwiches now and again. Step 1: Write nastygram with no intention of filing a lawsuit and hope the empty threats scare away the people you don't like. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Profi…

It was due to my alma mater's (McGill) poor security, but IDs + some minor extra info like DOB were able to be used for a lot of stuff (if i recall correctly ID was the username with DOB as the default password and voila, you got free reign to everything from financial information and even withdrawing a person from Uni entirely) when I was in school.

It is mostly due to the trusting and insular nature of universities where they assume that there isn't going to be malicious attacks, but I can see why they rather not have that information given away.

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#14

Post by bo1024 »

rayiner wrote: post #4

> The letter went on to demand that Crunchbutton stop listing Jo’s on its website; stop offering delivery service from any Brown dining establishment; stop collecting student ID numbers (for payment purposes); destroy any retained ID numbers; and stop using Brown facilities for any marketing or promotional activities. Except perhaps the first one, none of these seem unreasonable to me. The article also seems to gloss…

I think the point is that Crunchbutton did in fact cease and desist all of these activities, and instead of working with them or at least letting them be, Brown's legal department is continuing to harass Crunchbutton.

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#16

Post by cube13 »

ynniv wrote: post #11
rayiner wrote: post #4

> The letter went on to demand that Crunchbutton stop listing Jo’s on its website; stop offering delivery service from any Brown dining establishment; stop collecting student ID numbers (for payment purposes); destroy any retained ID numbers; and stop using Brown facilities for any marketing or promotional activities. Except perhaps the first one, none of these seem unreasonable to me. The article also seems to gloss…

When your "innovation" consists of leveraging someone else's product, it's generally bad form (even if not illegal per se, unless it amounts to trademark infringement) to make it seem like you have an association with them when you don't. I know there were recent discussions about copyrights with the Aereo decision, but come on: this company submits an order for delivery to you. THEY ARE LISTING WHAT YOU MIGHT GET. I…

The restaurant in question is owned by the university. It's not a third party or anything else. So the university is perfectly in their rights to tell other people how they want to submit orders.

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#17

Post by rayiner »

ynniv wrote: post #11
rayiner wrote: post #4

> The letter went on to demand that Crunchbutton stop listing Jo’s on its website; stop offering delivery service from any Brown dining establishment; stop collecting student ID numbers (for payment purposes); destroy any retained ID numbers; and stop using Brown facilities for any marketing or promotional activities. Except perhaps the first one, none of these seem unreasonable to me. The article also seems to gloss…

When your "innovation" consists of leveraging someone else's product, it's generally bad form (even if not illegal per se, unless it amounts to trademark infringement) to make it seem like you have an association with them when you don't. I know there were recent discussions about copyrights with the Aereo decision, but come on: this company submits an order for delivery to you. THEY ARE LISTING WHAT YOU MIGHT GET. I…

My guess is that the letter was sent because: 1) Crunchbutton was collecting student ID numbers, which rightfully raises security concerns; 2) This was a campus restaurant not open to the public, and the school has a legitimate interest in how it is used.

Again, a letter being sent doesn't mean a suit is being filed. The reason a lawyer sent it is because of the potential for legal issues, but by itself the letter has no more force than a "we don't want you to do this, please stop."

The article is devoid of any details and written to paint Crunchbutton in a good light. We have no idea what was actually on the website that prompted the letter. But if I were creating a delivery site for orders to a campus-operated restaurant to campus students, and collecting school ID's, I would think it pretty prudent to run it by the school, even if only for the potential security concerns.

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#19

Post by ynniv »

rayiner wrote: post #17
ynniv wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When your "innovation" consists of leveraging someone else's product, it's generally bad form (even if not illegal per se, unless it amounts to trademark infringement) to make it seem like you have an association with them when you don't. I know there were recent discussions about copyrights with the Aereo decision, but come on: this company submits an order for delivery to you. THEY ARE LISTING WHAT YOU MIGHT GET. I…

My guess is that the letter was sent because: 1) Crunchbutton was collecting student ID numbers, which rightfully raises security concerns; 2) This was a campus restaurant not open to the public, and the school has a legitimate interest in how it is used. Again, a letter being sent doesn't mean a suit is being filed. The reason a lawyer sent it is because of the potential for legal issues, but by itself the letter ha…

I am familiar with the concept of nastygrams.

You said: When your "innovation" consists of leveraging someone else's product, it's generally bad form (even if not illegal per se, unless it amounts to trademark infringement) to make it seem like you have an association with them when you don't.

And this makes little sense in the current context. Their innovation has nothing to do with Brown or how Brown delivers food. They used the shop name while they were doing business with them, and they collected information (voluntarily) that was required to conduct business.

The article is devoid of any details and written to paint Crunchbutton in a good light.

Honestly, are we reading the same article? I know that you're looking for specific details that a court would use, but most of the information is provided. Outside service tries to fill a customer demand while increasing business for a local provider, someone higher up is displeased by this and dispatches the lawyers to find something wrong. What this really says to me is that universities are deterring competition in their meal programs, which of course means there is extra room for competition.

Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story

#20

Post by hojoff79 »

rayiner wrote: post #4

> The letter went on to demand that Crunchbutton stop listing Jo’s on its website; stop offering delivery service from any Brown dining establishment; stop collecting student ID numbers (for payment purposes); destroy any retained ID numbers; and stop using Brown facilities for any marketing or promotional activities. Except perhaps the first one, none of these seem unreasonable to me. The article also seems to gloss…

Your comment seems to imply that services like "Dining-In" and other Seamless providers that have independent delivery services require the blessing of the restaurant to engage in that activity. Is that actually true?
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