MetroGuide's HotelGuide web site network offers hotel listings
in 170 cities around the world. The company has, since January
2002, been an affiliate of Hotels.com, which provides the
reservations back-end for MetroGuide's sites.
In its lawsuit filed on Monday in a federal court in Florida,
MetroGuide alleges that Hotels.com has violated its copyright by
placing pop-up ads that cover the logo of the HotelGuide network.
"Some customers", MetroGuide alleges, "while trying to book a hotel
on the HotelGuide service, saw a Hotels.com ad, unauthorised by
MetroGuide, appear on top of the HotelGuide web site. These pop
ups... obscured the HotelGuide brand and content underneath them,
enticing the customer to book the room directly with
Hotels.com."
The company also claims that Hotels.com engaged in unfair
business practices by rewarding competing affiliates who stole
MetroGuide's copyrighted content: "We have seen various affiliates
of Hotels.com receive financially lucrative placements in search
engines resulting in part from copying our content onto their web
sites."
MetroGuide believes that HotelGuide's contract with Gator, the
firm that provides software supporting pop-up ads, is to blame for
the dispute. The company said in a statement: "Disputes of this
sort are normally seen between competing entities that have no
business relationship... To the best of our knowledge, of the
number of Gator advertising-related lawsuits out there, ours is the
only suit alleging that a business partner has been caught using
predatory advertising to steal away customers from one of its own
business partners."
Although, according to the lawsuit, Hotels.com no longer
contracts with Gator to display ads on the HotelGuide web sites,
MetroGuide is seeking compensation for lost revenue.
In June 2002, Weight Watchers sued rival DietWatch.com for
contracting with Gator to place pop-ups on user's screens when they
visited WeightWatchers.com. Gator itself has been the subject of
numerous legal complaints over copyright infringement, including
one filed by a group of major publishers.
