The website for Kirkland, Wash.-based Asset Realty Group has some “striking similarities” to Seattle-based Redfin’s website, GeekWire reported.
Seattle blogger and former Redfin employee Tim Ellis compared the two sites’ design and layout and declared the Asset Realty site a “shameless rip off,” including 54 instances of the word “Redfin” in the Asset Realty site’s source code.
A Redfin spokeswoman told GeekWire that they are aware of the Asset Realty Group site, but they are “not discussing any potential actions right now.”
In 2012, Canadian real estate company Sutton WestCoast Realty was forced to refer website visitors to its franchisor’s national website after it became entangled in a copyright dispute with Seattle-based Estately Inc., which sent the Sutton firm a cease-and-desist letter alleging the firm’s site made use of Estately’s intellectual property. Sutton WestCoast Realty’s website has since relaunched.
“This looks a lot like what happened to us: a straight lift of the html, CSS and JavaScript,” Estately CEO Galen Ward told GeekWire. “Outsourced firms often take the ‘we want it to look similar to ____’ a little too literally.”
Source: GeekWire