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Brown vs. Startup Over a Sandwich
An anonymous reader writes "Crunchbutton, founded by Yale grads, is trying to replicate the success of its one-button food delivery service in and around Brown University. The controversy began when the startup delivered a popular Brown sandwich called the 'Spicy With' to students. Brown's lawyers sent Crunchbutton a cease and desist letter, demanding that the company remove any associations with the university or its name. The startup says it has complied with the demands, yet Brown has not backed off, and it expects to be served with a lawsuit. This tale illustrates the perils of encouraging entrepreneurship while protecting the interests of a big educational institution."
Brown also happens to be a perfectly cromulant color and a very popular surname. Brown University can go... do something indecent.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
How much you want to bet this is just Brown being butthurt that they're getting one-upped by Yale grads yet again..
Why would they name their university after the color of poop? They should have payed attention to the brown Microsoft Zune fiasco.
people tend to choose the same one or two items whenever they call a particular restaurant for delivery or take-out. And restaurants tend to have a few popular items that they make particularly well. Why not match up supply and demand with a smart button that makes ordering super-simple?
For people who think that ordering food delivery is just too much work.
It doesn't taste better?
1. Do they have a command-line client?
2. Does it require root privileges?
PlusFive Slashdot reader for Android. Can post comments.
In the article, it says he complied with the legal threat and that is pretty much the end of the story. They have not been taken to court. All else in the article is just publicity for the company.
That being said, I don't see why they need to focus on campuses at all, except it's a good market for delivery & cell phone usage. There is no need for a lawsuit and they already stopped delivering food associated to Brown.
Some people die at 25 and aren't buried until 75. -Benjamin Franklin
I'm still trying to wrap my brain around this...
They do not claim to be the restaurant, they claim to be a courier service. They mention what the restaurant provides, and they create a method to allow one to use school-food-accounts to pay for it. The restaurant and thus the school still gets paid.
Then there are somewhat generic words like "Brown" and "Spicy With". I am curious as to how the school could hold on to "Spicy With" when that's a description, in the same fashion that Apple got denied trademark on "iPad Mini" because it's a description, not a name...
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Is that fun?
What kind of people do this?
Are they happy, where do they live, how do they look, how is their hm, sexlife?
That would be really interesting to find out.
The startup says it has complied with the demands, yet Brown has not backed off, and it expects to be served with a lawsuit. This tale illustrates the perils of encouraging entrepreneurship while protecting the interests of a big educational institution."
No, this tale illustrates the perils of being an entrepreneur in a universe we have to share with completely litigious dickwads (Color-of-feces 'Brown' University).
The business is called Crunchbutton. The sandwich is called "Spicy With".
How does any of that suggest Brown University?
Remember when higher education was concerned with, well, education, instead of "branding"?
More Twoson than Cupertino
Exactly, I had to read the summary 3 times before I could make sense of it. I was thinking "English, Motherf...ker, do you speak it?"
Brown bag it for a while.
Yeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh
and then if Brown decides their name is "shit" and sues, it can be tossed out because the university's high rollers made the association themselves.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
I have a fantastic start up idea called "Brown Note Generator". With one button, it will serve lawsuits to everyone that I don't like! Now to get onto Shark Tank...
Just add {In Space!} to anything.
I was a "sandwich man" when a student at a different Ivy League school. In that case I had no choice but to buy from food services. You were not allowed to sell or deliver to the dorms unless you were authorized by food services.
This is, most likely, a case of Brown having its own service and not wanting the competition.
My brain is overly lubricated
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education (1954)
Brown v. Startup Over a Sandwich (2013)
Brown University sues Crunchbutton.
Crunchbutton seeks external help.
UPS sues Brown University over the "Brown" trademark.
Brown University drops lawsuit against Crunchbutton, with public apologies.
UPS drops lawsuit against Brown University, with a note saying "We'll be watching. By the way your name is now Blue University".
Get free satoshi (Bitcoin) and Dogecoins
But will it be for take-out?
So the university that "really encourages entrepreneurship" has managed to get the entrepreneur free national publicity by threatening (but not actually filing, to date) a lawsuit. I feel like a tool just for having read the article.
-Glires
It's trendy in some circles to complain of excessive government regulation interfering with business, but intellectual property is where it really happens. Sometimes it seems like any entrepreneur or innovation can be stopped cold by the legal burden of defending intellectual property.
I think it's pretty clear that this isn't going to go well for Brown. They'll get nothing but bad publicity from this, so why on earth was this lawyer allowed to write a C&D letter? He should have at least checked first with Brown's marketing department - or any department - if it's okay to threaten a small business that's popular with students for no gain to the the university.
"A week in the lab saves an hour in the library"
You might not be very successful in prosecuting people over your purported property...
"What can Brown do for you?"
What can Color C0:M60:Y72:K98 do for you?
Rosenblatt and von Gerichten-stern are dead.
Critical facts missing form the summary: The restaurant and sandwiches are owned by the university. This is not about Brown as a trademark.
Rosenblatt says he complied with these demands. On Dec. 12, he wrote an e-mail back to von Gerichten, saying as much. But the lawyer wrote back the next day, saying he ,b>still saw Brown’s product listed on Crunchbutton’s Web page and that there were indications that the campus delivery service would resume (as well as a “defamatory” statement involving liver damage). Rosenblatt wrote back disputing that there was any indication that delivery of “Spicy With” would continue, and apologizing for what he called a joke (which he said was “made in poor taste”).
Meanwhile, in late February, Crunchbutton started working with a Providence restaurant, off campus, to sell and deliver the equivalent of a “Spicy With” sandwich— “except much fresher and tastier,” says Rosenblatt.
So, rather than simply complying and ending the story there. They chose to temporarily comply and make fun of the product and circumstance. This raised the lawyer's ire, rather than diffusing the situation. Crunchbutton then responded with a lame attempt of an excuse. As if that wasn't enough, they then tried to launch another product that (whether or not is actually infringing) is a clear attempt to circumvent rights that Crunchbutton already accepted by their prior faux claims of compliance.
It is clear by their actions that Crunchbutton is willfully attempting to "ingringe", which will not put them in a favorable light when judgment comes. The only real question is if they can prove that there is CLEARLY no infringement or rights being held.
So is that what makes this newsworthy? Post an article when at least the lawsuit has been filed, or better yet when it has been ruled upon. Right now, who cares?
The university was angry about somebody who did something to drive business to their restaurant and moreover, did it for free. Sue them!
Will they sue the phone system and google for connecting them?
English, BrownWith, do you Spicy it?
There are two types of people in the world: Those who crave closure
They're simply a list of ingredients
So you're free to make a SpicyWith. (Unless they have a trademark on SpicyWith, which is again unlikely as descriptions are not allowed)
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
As if that wasn't enough, they then tried to launch another product that (whether or not is actually infringing) is a clear attempt to circumvent rights that Crunchbutton already accepted by their prior faux claims of compliance.
BS. Crunchbutton voluntarily stopped offering the sandwich. That doesn't mean they accepted Brown's claims. If they really wanted to fight Brown, they still could.
It is clear by their actions that Crunchbutton is willfully attempting to "ingringe", which will not put them in a favorable light when judgment comes.
It's a different sandwich from a different restaurant. They have no interaction with Brown at this point. There's no indication that Brown even cares anymore, now that they're not using student IDs and not ordering from the campus restaurant.
Even the name "Spicy With" isn't actually the name of the sandwich at the campus restaurant. It's a spicy chicken sandwich, which you can get with cheese or without. It's the same shit you get at any campus cafeteria, not some kind of signature specialty.
It's a spicy chicken sandwich with cheese. "Spicy With" isn't actually the name, it's just something students shout at the grill cook to save half a second.
The astonishing and unprecedented success of libertarian entreprenurs has prooved that "higher" education just doesn't work and this lawsuit is just one more proof that one doesn't need any kind of formal education to succeed when you simply keep government OUT OF OUR BUSINESS.
What has Brown done for you lately?
Why anyone would buy anything from some outfit called "Crunchbottom"?
So what is a "spicy with" sandwich made of?
I plan to call it the "urgent-cease-and-desist" sandwich. It constitutes of two slices of brown bread, with brown peanut butter, lettuce with brown spots, seasoned with a smallish amount of ground chili peppers, and served in a mock-up (brown) leather briefcase.
Okay unless they deliver the Spicy With!
I only look human.
My mother is a halfling and my dad is an ogre, so that makes me an Ogreling
1. The lawsuit is based on the student entrepreneur's "feeling", a less credible source cannot possible exist.
2. What he did is called piggybacking, businesses will go to great lengths to prevent it, in this case the business was owned by the university.
Don't get me wrong, they could've let him continue on in good faith, but it was probably inconveniencing them somehow, or the lawyer's a real asshole.
There is no "entrepreneurship" left in this country unless you allow yourself to be owned by someone else. Everything else is an illusion.
IMHO, Brown University's "Meal Service Accounts" for its students may be the issue here.
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Here's an update from Brown University's student newpaper blog article from April 2nd about the "revamping of the Spicy-With delivery" service from CrunchButton. It mentions that CrunchButton is now sourcing the sandwich from Mirano Grill which performs the delivery function.
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It appears that "Jo's", the original source and supplier of "Spicy With" for crunch-button's one-button app is an official Brown University food-service location which does not supply delivery service at all. So in the original situation, Crunch-button was providing the delivery service, while the student's student-ID-card-information was being used for charging food-service for the food item (and possibly also for the delivery charge). None of the articles I've seen or crunch-button's site makes clear whether the charge is paid COD (cash on delivery) or billed as an addon to the student's Brown University account in the original situation when the sandwich came from Jo's.
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With the introduction of an off-campus supplier for the sandwich, the payment option must have been changed to credit-card or some other option, as off-campus restaurants don't usually get access to the "dining options" accounts held by students on a university campus. So IMHO, I think the brouhaha was about accessing the students' "dining card accounts" and with the use of an on-campus official Brown university food-service restaurant.