Two weeks after submitting a theft of commerce secrets and techniques lawsuit in opposition to CoStar Group, Transfer now desires CoStar handy over Transfer-owned recordsdata and digital units utilized by former Realtor.com Information and Insights Editor James Kaminsky.
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Two weeks after submitting a theft of commerce secrets and techniques lawsuit in opposition to competitor CoStar Group, Realtor.com father or mother firm Transfer, Inc. has requested a decide in California to dam CoStar Group’s entry to recordsdata on the heart of the lawsuit.
Transfer’s attorneys filed the preliminary injunction on Monday with Choose Steve Kim of the U.S. District Court docket in California, asking the court docket to dam CoStar Group and former Realtor.com Information and Insights Editor James Kaminsky’s entry to Transfer-owned recordsdata outlining core details about Realtor.com’s N and I editorial finances, viewers and income numbers, alongside employment summaries for a number of Transfer workers.
Transfer mentioned Kaminsky accessed these recordsdata at the very least 37 occasions after taking a place as an editor at Properties.com in January. Transfer wasn’t conscious of Kaminsky’s alleged actions till June 3, when a Transfer worker acquired an alert that Kaminsky’s Gmail account had opened a core file for the Realtor.com Information and Perception staff. Transfer then barred Kaminsky’s Gmail handle.
Along with the preliminary injunction, Transfer’s counsel additionally desires CoStar Group to offer a listing of digital units (e.g., desktop pc, laptop computer pc, mobile phone) Kaminsky has used since becoming a member of Properties.com. Transfer additionally requested for a forensic inspection of mentioned units.
“Move easily meets the standards for entry of a preliminary injunction and for an order authorizing limited expedited forensic discovery,” the injunction request learn. “With an appropriately crafted Order, the Court can help Move stop further misappropriation of trade secrets, ensure unauthorized access to its computer systems has stopped, prevent more spoliation, and determine where Move’s stolen information has been sent.”
Gene Boxer | Credit score: CoStar
In an e mail to Inman, CoStar Group Common Counsel Gene Boxer characterised the preliminary injunction as “a knee-jerk filing” and one other “PR stunt” from Realtor.com as competitors heats up between the 2 residential portal behemoths.
“Last week, we noted that plaintiffs with real concerns about trade secrets file for injunctions when they file complaints, and that Move had not, and we predicted that now that we had called them out, they would file such a motion,” Boxer mentioned in a press release to Inman. “That’s exactly what happened. Realtor.com’s motion confirms that they’re using a mid-level employee as a pawn and that they have zero evidence of any involvement by CoStar. None.”
Inman additionally contacted Realtor.com; nevertheless, an organization spokesperson mentioned, “[Realtor.com] doesn’t comment on pending litigation.”
The lawsuit is the newest chapter in Transfer and CoStar Group’s battle over which residential portal can rightfully declare the second-place spot throughout a pivotal level in a years-long portal struggle.
CoStar Group caught the business’s consideration in October 2023 when the corporate introduced its residential portal, Properties.com, had drawn 100 million month-to-month distinctive guests in September — a metric that meant Properties.com had grown its visitors by 117 p.c in a single month.
Regardless of questions concerning the correctness of these claims, CoStar Group and Properties.com rapidly leaned into messaging about surpassing Realtor.com because the second-most trafficked portal within the U.S., placing $1 billion right into a star-studded advertising and marketing blitz to drive visitors and memberships to the location.
CoStar Group founder and CEO Andy Florance and Realtor.com CEO Damian Eales spent a lot of the primary quarter of 2024 delivering slight jabs at one another. Each leaders embraced competitors and touted the power of their respective platforms throughout their Inman Join New York appearances; nevertheless, the stakes have heightened since then.
Eales started placing extra strain on Florance and CoStar Group in Might, utilizing his time at the Nationwide Affiliation of Realtors MLS Discussion board of the Realtors Legislative Conferences to lambast CoStar Group for casting Properties.com Community visitors figures as Properties.com visitors figures.
In July, Transfer took Eales’ considerations to the Higher Enterprise Bureau Nationwide Applications’ Nationwide Promoting Division, which advisable that CoStar cease utilizing “Homes.com just reached 156M monthly unique visitors” and “Homes.com now has DOUBLE Realtor.com’s traffic” in its adverts as each claims are based mostly on visitors for the Properties.com Community.
CoStar Group acquiesced to NAD’s suggestions, with latest promoting highlighting Properties.com’s 100 million month-to-month distinctive guests. The corporate can nonetheless spotlight visitors numbers for the Properties.com Community in the event that they “explicitly disclose it in the body of its advertisements.”
The Court docket will resolve on the preliminary injunction throughout a listening to on Aug. 14.
