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
#2It's not the Ivy League, just one member, Brown.
And no one has been sued.
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#3It 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: Profit?
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#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 over aspects of the situation that could make this "innovator" look bad. Why did they need to collect student ID's for "payment purposes?" What exactly was this "defamatory statement?"
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.
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#5It 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…
There are safety/security implications to having a company e.g. use student ID numbers to do the various nefarious things companies do these days with personal information. Especially in a campus environment, with a restaurant that seems like it wasn't open to the general public.
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#6Well shit. How were you guys even offering delivery for said sandwich if Brown wasn't involved? Are you moving to power delivery yourselves?
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#7It 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…
There are safety/security implications to having a company e.g. use student ID numbers to do the various nefarious things companies do these days with personal information. Especially in a campus environment, with a restaurant that seems like it wasn't open to the general public.
Sure, but they deleted the Brown IDs and complied with Brown's demands after the cease and desist. Now they're making these sandwiches at another restaurant, and Brown's still threatening them.
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#8Well shit. How were you guys even offering delivery for said sandwich if Brown wasn't involved? Are you moving to power delivery yourselves?
On second thought, it's probably good if you guys don't respond to comments, duh.
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#9Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are safety/security implications to having a company e.g. use student ID numbers to do the various nefarious things companies do these days with personal information. Especially in a campus environment, with a restaurant that seems like it wasn't open to the general public.
Sure, but they deleted the Brown IDs and complied with Brown's demands after the cease and desist. Now they're making these sandwiches at another restaurant, and Brown's still threatening them.
We have no idea what for--the article just gives a quote from Rosenblatt: "The startup has heard nothing more from Brown directly. But Rosenblatt says the same Brown lawyer started “harassing Betaspring” on March 18 with e-mails and phone calls to the accelerator’s partners and office manager; Rosenblatt says his interpretation was that the university was “preparing to serve us” with a lawsuit."
Re: A Sandwich, a Startup, and Soon, a Lawsuit? The Crunchbutton Story
#10> 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'm not sure about Brown, but at my school we had student IDs which could also act as credit cards for "school money". Meal plans would come with a set amount of school money and you could load more on the card. This money could then be used at places around campus as well as local restaurants and grocery stores that would accept the card. Certain services (such as delivery.com which was popular in the area) also accepted school cards. So my guess is that the student IDs were simply the number associated with the credit card for using special school money.