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Every week after Transfer, Inc launched their forensic evaluation of former Realtor.com editor James Kaminsky’s work pc in an amended preliminary injunction request, CoStar Group has fired again with a 22-page movement requesting California District Choose George H. Wu to disclaim their rival’s request.
The movement rebuffs Transfer’s forensic evaluation of James Kaminsky’s work pc, which revealed Kaminsky accessed and transferred 40 Transfer-owned paperwork allegedly containing on-line site visitors, promoting and lead era techniques throughout his ultimate days working for the corporate. The movement additionally denies claims Kaminsky shared these information with CoStar to spice up Properties.com’s SEO technique and web site site visitors.
CoStar’s counsel stated the Information & Insights information Kaminsky “minimally accessed” after leaving Transfer can’t be labeled as commerce secrets and techniques attributable to the truth that the publication schedules and details about standard content material is now “largely stale” and “publicly available or readily ascertainable.” Transfer worker titles and salaries may simply be discovered on Glassdoor and LinkedIn, the submitting stated.
“Not only are the documents underlying Move’s motion not trade secrets, they were not protected by Move as such,” the submitting learn. “The plaintiff did not protect information despite existence of “two password and user ID-protected systems, limiting employees’ access to [the] data, encrypting the data, requiring two-factor authentication to access the data, and separately storing the data on its own server that is password protected and limited”). Nor can Transfer justify it failure to safe its Google platform.”
A forensic skilled additionally verified Kaminsky by no means shared any of the disputed information with CoStar, they stated, eliminating the necessity for a preliminary injunction.
“Move cannot identify any change CoStar has made to its business or damage it has suffered as a result of Kaminsky’s access to the five Move documents; and CoStar’s Homes.com outperformed Realtor.com for months prior to Kaminsky joining CoStar,” the submitting learn. “There is no mystery why Move is seeking to enjoin CoStar from using documents it has not used: Move’s Realtor.com is losing market share to CoStar’s Homes.com … That Move’s desperate times have given rise to such desperate measures does not warrant injunctive relief.”
Gene Boxer | Credit score: CoStar
In an emailed assertion to Inman, CoStar Group Basic Counsel Gene Boxer continued to characterize Transfer’s lawsuit as “a PR stunt” and “speculative nonsense.”
“To be clear, CoStar has never had interest in Realtor.com’s strategies or alleged trade secrets, as its ‘lead diversion’ tactics are anathema to Homes.com’s agent and user-friendly ‘your listing, your lead’ model,” he stated. “Move’s lawsuit is based on false, and now shifting, premises.”
“To start, Move filed a case accusing CoStar of using Move documents to build a rival news business. This accusation was completely false, as we said publicly at the time. Nothing more than a PR stunt,” he added. “As Move knows, CoStar doesn’t have any of those documents, and certainly hasn’t used them … Move then tried to salvage its case with an even weaker new theory: admitting that — in fact — no one at CoStar is using any stale Move documents, but maybe, just maybe, an employee who edits descriptions of New York condos might use documents he doesn’t have, to do a job he doesn’t have: directing CoStar’s search engine optimization. This is speculative nonsense.”
A Realtor.com spokesperson declined to touch upon Transfer’s newest submitting, noting the corporate doesn’t make statements on “pending litigation.”
Choose Wu will make a ruling on Transfer’s amended preliminary injunction and restricted expedited discovery request on Sept. 23.
Learn the total submitting beneath:
