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Move Inc. filed a motion to dismiss its case against portal competitor CoStar on Monday in a dispute over whether a former Realtor.com employee sought to use trade secrets to give Homes.com an advantage.
Move also said that it reached a settlement agreement with James Kaminsky, the former head of the News & Insights group at Realtor.com, as it moved to dismiss the case against CoStar, the parent company of Homes.com. Move had alleged that after Kaminsky left Realtor.com for a position at Homes.com, he accessed strategic documents related to Realtor.com’s plans to grow its online traffic through news articles.
“After catching our ex-employee brazenly accessing our strategy documents while employed at CoStar, we acted decisively, launching legal action to halt and prevent any ongoing exploitation of our intellectual property,” a Realtor.com spokesperson said in a statement.
The company said it decided to reach a settlement with Kaminsky and dismiss the case against CoStar after Kaminsky was laid off from CoStar earlier this year.
“Given that he is no longer employed by CoStar and we have a settlement in place, we have chosen to dismiss our trade secrets lawsuit against CoStar because the risk of additional misuse has been mitigated,” the spokesperson said. “Our commitment to safeguarding our trade secrets remains unwavering and uncompromising.”
The lawsuit served as an escalation amid an ongoing battle between the two portals, each of which is vying for the No. 2 spot behind Zillow.
CoStar has said that Homes.com is the No. 2 real estate portal behind Zillow. Realtor.com officials have openly questioned CoStar’s reporting.
Kaminsky didn’t respond to a request for comment about his employment status or his tumultuous year at Homes.com.
He joined CoStar Group in March 2024. He was placed on leave shortly after Move filed its lawsuit in July. CoStar wrote in a legal filing last week that Kaminsky’s team, which CoStar CEO Andy Florance said focused on writing descriptions of condos in New York City, had been let go this year.
Move alleged Kaminsky accessed information from Realtor.com “at least 37 times after CoStar hired him,” violating federal and state computer fraud laws in the process.
According to Move, those documents included information about topics and content planned for Realtor.com; ideas for future stories; metrics showing user traffic; a list of contacts; lists of Realtor.com employees and their compensation; and other private business information.
CoStar vigorously denied Move’s allegations, calling them a “PR stunt” by one of its competitors. In a statement on Monday, CoStar pointed out that the judge in the case denied Move’s motion for preliminary injunction last September.
In the statement, Florance declared victory over Realtor.com and repeated his claim that the lawsuit was a PR stunt. CoStar said that it told Move it would seek unspecified sanctions. The company said Move sought to dismiss the case soon after.
“Nine months later, after a warning from our lawyers about sanctions, Move folded. We did not settle. We didn’t pay a dime. Move simply capitulated,” Florance said. “From the beginning, Move had no evidence linking CoStar Group to any trade secrets, and this dismissal proves it. This was a desperate, anticompetitive stunt to slow down Homes.com as we passed Realtor.com in the marketplace.”
