Legal Sea Foods Sues DoorDash for Trademark Infringement [UPDATE]

A famous Boston seafood chain has beef with a startup delivery service, according to Universal Hub. Legal Sea Foods filed suit against the California-based company DoorDash for misrepresentation of its brand. Legal claimed trademark infringement and alleged DoorDash partook in deceptive acts and practices by delivering Legal food, despite multiple cease and desist requests.

The restaurant's slogan, "If it isn't fresh, it isn't Legal," is taken to heart in this case. In the civil suit, Legal detailed its repeated efforts to get DoorDash to stop listing the restaurant on its website, expressing concerns that the delivery service would not handle the food properly and thus create a sub-par Legal experience for the customers.

The suit alleges that DoorDash knew Legal had not "sponsored, licensed, or authorized its services." It also calls out the delivery service's business model in a section of the suit, saying "DoorDash's actions were calculated and willful as its business model intentionally preys on restaurants without merchant agreements."

DoorDash also apparently marked up the cost of Legal menu items, the Boston Herald reported. The company has since removed Legal Sea Foods from its list of restaurants. This is not the first scuffle restaurants have had with the delivery service. In New York, a number of restaurants reported rejecting partnership offers from the company and later seeing their menus listed on the site. In-N-Out has also filed suit against DoorDash for delivering its food without permission.

Update 1 p.m.: A DoorDash spokesperson has provided the following statement:

DoorDash strives to provide the best delivery experience possible while always keeping the interests of merchants, Dashers and customers in mind. We have a policy to honor merchants' wishes if they choose not to be on the DoorDash platform and we removed Legal Sea Foods from DoorDash as soon as our leadership became aware of their request.