Permission for food pickup & delivery service

[TheBlackGoogle]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

I would like to start a food delivery service. Customers will be able to order groceries and place food orders online. Once an order is placed on our site we will place food order with restaurant over the phone and pay at pick up like any other customer. We advertise the service on our site as Restaurant Pickup. Now my question is. Do I need permission from restaurants to offer they're menu items for pickup and delivery on our site? Will I have legal issues if I do this.

For example I want to list: "$8 Large pizza from "Pizza Place" - $5 for delivery..

Does first-sale doctrine apply for this situation? Our customers pay us to pickup and deliver the food from these restaurants for them so I don't see any issue with it. I want to be able to use there name on my site and post pictures of the food items I buy so I can advertise my service. I sent letters to all the restaurants I have listed but I have heard no word back and I'm ready to promote. All other services list the restaurants as partners on there sites. Do I really need to do this. I plan on posting a disclaimer on our site "we are not affiliated with restaurant.". What do you think?

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Michigan

I would like to start a food delivery service. Customers will be able to order groceries and place food orders online. Once an order is placed on our site we will place food order with restaurant over the phone and pay at pick up like any other customer. We advertise the service on our site as Restaurant Pickup. Now my question is. Do I need permission from restaurants to offer they're menu items for pickup and delivery on our site? Will I have legal issues if I do this.

For example I want to list: "$8 Large pizza from "Pizza Place" - $5 for delivery..

Does first-sale doctrine apply for this situation? Our customers pay us to pickup and deliver the food from these restaurants for them so I don't see any issue with it. I want to be able to use there name on my site and post pictures of the food items I buy so I can advertise my service. I sent letters to all the restaurants I have listed but I have heard no word back and I'm ready to promote. All other services list the restaurants as partners on there sites. Do I really need to do this. I plan on posting a disclaimer on our site "we are not affiliated with restaurant.". What do you think?

I suggest you visit the GrubHub, Inc website and read all of the information they have posted there on their restaurant delivery service (the terms of service, the privacy policy, the corporate account information, the restaurant partnerships, etc).

There is a lot to consider, from both a business perspective AND a legal perspective, to operate a business of the type you are considering.

"First sale" is an intellectual property doctrine. It applies to what you can do with any rights-protected material after legal purchase or acquisition. Under the first sale doctrine, you can keep, give away, sell or throw away any copyrighted or trademarked item. However, you are not given any rights in the work purchased or acquired. You cannot copy any copyrighted material (under which restaurant menus could fall) and you cannot trade off the good will of any trademarked company by using their name or logo to promote your business - without the express written permission of the rights holder.

I suggest you review the GrubHub site and then sit down with an attorney in your area for a review of your plans, this before you invest a lot of time, energy or money into your venture.

Good luck.