Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Re: copyright

If you mean identical copying as opposed to a listing of items, they are protected by copyright if there are design elements associated with them or if there's a unique way of presenting the listings. If it's just copying the listing of items, probably not eligible for copyright. Care should be taken if the listings themselves are original expressions.

Re: copyright

First off, copyright is federal, not New York State, law. And, yes, the menus were "copyrighted" as soon as ink was put to paper, whether or not they are registered with the copyright office.