07-04-2025
CoStar, real estate website competitor end trade-secret lawsuit
April 7 (Reuters) - Real-estate listing website owner Move Inc has agreed to end a lawsuit that accused rival CoStar Group (CSGP.O), opens new tab of poaching one of its former employees to steal its trade secrets, according to a Monday filing in California federal court.
The filing said, opens new tab that Move's would dismiss its case with prejudice, which means it cannot be refiled. A spokesperson said in a statement that the company dismissed the lawsuit because it had settled with ex-employee James Kaminsky, who no longer works at CoStar.
A spokesperson and attorneys for CoStar did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Kaminsky's attorneys also did not respond to a request for comment and details of the settlement on Monday.
said in its lawsuit last year that CoStar misused confidential information from Kaminsky, who ran its "News and Insights" platform, to bolster CoStar's competing real-estate listing website. The lawsuit said that is the second most-visited real-estate listing website in the United States, and that CoStar has been working "aggressively" to grow its rival website
alleged that Kaminsky stole documents related to business strategy, industry contacts and "a vast array of other competitively sensitive and valuable information" for CoStar.
CoStar responded in a court filing that the claims were "knowingly false" and part of a "flailing effort to stymie the success of which it said had surpassed in the marketplace. Kaminsky also denied the allegations in a separate filing.
The case is Move Inc v. CoStar Group Inc, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:24-cv-05607.
For Move: Brent Caslin, David Singer, Todd Toral and Carolyn Small of Jenner & Block
For CoStar: Nicholas Boyle, Matthew Walch and Joseph Axelrad of Latham & Watkins
For Kaminsky: Ethan Brown and Patricia Tenenbaum of Brown Neri Smith & Khan
