CoStar hit with trade secrets lawsuit over dueling real-estate websites

July 3 (Reuters) - Commercial real-estate data provider CoStar Group (CSGP.O) has been hit with a lawsuit in California federal court from rival Move Inc, which accused CoStar of poaching one of its employees to steal its trade secrets.

The lawsuit filed on Tuesday said that CoStar hired away James Kaminsky, a former employee of Move's website Realtor.com, and misappropriated confidential information to bolster CoStar's competing real-estate listing website.

A CoStar spokesperson said on Wednesday that Realtor.com is "attempting to divert attention from its business troubles by filing a baseless suit, rather than competing in the marketplace."

A Realtor.com spokesperson on Wednesday declined to comment on the case.

The lawsuit said that Realtor.com 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 Homes.com, which according to Move "has not, until recently, been a significant player in the industry."

According to the complaint, Kaminsky headed Realtor.com's "News and Insights" platform until he was laid off in January. The lawsuit said that Kaminsky took a similar role at Homes.com in March.

Move said it discovered last month that Kaminsky had stolen documents related to business strategy, industry contacts and "a vast array of other competitively sensitive and valuable information" for CoStar.

Move asked the court for an unspecified amount of monetary damages and an order blocking CoStar from using its trade secrets.

The case is Move Inc v. CoStar Group Inc, U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, No. 2:24-cv-05607.