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[Lombardi]

Hello, I have a question about possible protection of data of someone's product. If I put on my website comparison of technical data (specifications) of e.g. two cars - Mercedez and BMW, is this data somehow protected by these and alike companies even if this data is available in public?

And another question - can I put pictures of any product without limitations, if such pictures are taken by myself?

Thanks.

[BobRoberts]

Hi Lombardi,

I'll give it a stab, and maybe someone else will chime in. 
Data is not protectable by Copyright.  So mentioning statistics about cars or anything else should not be an issue under Copyright Law. 

Use of the names of the particular cars (more of a Trademark Law issue) should be protected as well so long as you are not trying to sell any items or services that would lead a consumer to believe that you are affiliated with the auto companies.  If you are just listing the name above the column of data about that car, then it would be more of a descriptive use/fair use of a trademark and thus acceptable to do under Trademark Law.

Now the above being said, you may have rights to use the statistics, and to use the name in a descriptive fashion, but that doesn't mean that you won't be hearing from the attorneys of the rights-holder anyways asserting that you have violated their rights. 

Photo of the car.  I don't know.  I'm not sure if someone was able to get Copyright protection on aesthetic aspects of a car, where the photo would be a dervitave work.  Usually any aesthetic aspects would be protected more under a Design Patent, but I'm sure that stranger things have happened. 

Good luck.

This is not to be construed as legal advice, as there is no Attorney-Client relationship formed here.