Legal Question in Intellectual Property in New York

Mentioning Information Sources

I am building a list of hotels that has been taken from both online booking websites (like bookings dot com) and paper travel guides (like Lonely Planet and Rough Guides). The list will be available for free online. I am not using the text those sources use to describe the hotels, but rather making my own interpretation of their entries. The only 'real' copies information is the hotel name, the address and the contact telephone number.

I have 2 questions:

- Can I use those sources problem-free since I am not copying the text?

- Can I mention the fact that I used those sources in a marketing campaign ('Contains all hotel information from XXX!'), providing it is true?

Thank you very much for your precious help.


Asked on 6/09/07, 7:47 am

2 Answers from Attorneys
Kristen Browde Browde Law, P.C.

Re: Mentioning Information Sources

A list of names/telephone numbers, etc. and even recommendations are relatively unlikely to cause problems, however, it would be prudent to have an attorney review your site before you go live with it.

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Answered on 6/09/07, 11:01 am
Johm Smith tom's

Re: Mentioning Information Sources

Name, address and telephone number are not a problem. But if you're going to write that you got your information from other online source, those sources probably won't be pleased with you. So make sure they can't get you for anything else. You might want to link names to those sites, unless that is contrary to your business goals.

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Answered on 6/09/07, 8:39 am


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