Zillow continues to infringe on CoStar’s copyrighted images on thousands of rental listings, according to an amended complaint CoStar filed on Friday in the ongoing lawsuit it initiated last July.
The new complaint was filed in western Washington, where Zillow’s headquarters are located. It says that CoStar has identified more images that the portal is improperly using, that Zillow failed to remove images CoStar flagged as infringing on its copyrights, and that the portal re-published images that were previously flagged and removed.
“Thus, providing Zillow notice — no matter how specific — is futile,” CoStar wrote in its amended complaint. “In the face of a federal lawsuit alleging prolific mass infringement and repeated letters identifying its new, continuing, and now reoccurring infringement, Zillow persists.”
CoStar has dominated the commercial real estate and apartment rental sectors for years. That’s a space Zillow has increasingly sought to compete in, and rentals are now one of Zillow’s fastest-growing revenue segments.
CoStar, meanwhile, has been attempting to build a top real estate search portal featuring for-sale inventory via Homes.com.
The battle spilled over into the courts last July when CoStar alleged that Zillow was infringing on its copyrighted images.
“Zillow’s post-suit conduct thus confirms an unavoidable truth: Zillow, a mass and continuing infringer, made a deliberate business decision, on notice of the risks, to exploit and continue exploiting CoStar’s intellectual property, presumably expecting that misconduct to yield a net benefit greater than the alternative option of ceasing its mass infringement, regardless of the legal consequences,” the new filing states.
In a statement in response to the amended complaint, a Zillow spokesperson called CoStar’s case weak.
“CoStar’s decision to amend the complaint rather than respond to our motion to dismiss is yet another proof point in the weaknesses of their arguments and also a perpetual model of wastefully leveraging litigation rather than competing on the basis of product quality and consumer experience,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
CoStar General Counsel Gene Boxer said that Zillow had grown “increasingly brazen” in its alleged violations.
“Zillow infringed thousands of new CoStar copyrighted images after being sued, many plainly stamped with our watermark, bringing the total number of images at issue to more than 53,000,” Boxer said in a statement.
“Even worse, after claiming to have removed the images CoStar specifically identified in its original complaint, Zillow turned around and re-published many of those very same photographs,” Boxer’s statement continued. “Zillow has the tools to stop — it is simply choosing not to, hoping that its mass-infringement scheme will return a profit. We look forward to holding Zillow to account.”
Editor’s Note: This story was updated with a response from Zillow.
