Realtor.com, CoStar agree to dismiss trade secrets lawsuit 

The bruising trade secrets dispute between Realtor.com and CoStar has come to an end. The suit, which centered around an editor who was laid off by Realtor.com and then subsequently took a role with Homes.com in 2024, has been jointly dismissed by the parties according to a filing in a U.S. District Court in California. 

What Realtor.com said: A representative for Realtor.com and parent company Move — which brought the legal action last summer — shared a prepared statement maintaining the company's position that it had been harmed by the former employee, James Kaminsky, who was accused of accessing Realtor.com documents on Move servers after his employment was terminated in January 2024. 

Realtor.com reps also noted that Kaminsky is no longer employed by CoStar. 

"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. Realtor.com has chosen to settle with our ex-employee, who is no longer an employee of CoStar," the statement read. 

"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. Our commitment to safeguarding our trade secrets remains unwavering and uncompromising." 

What the latest court filing reveals: In previous hearings, U.S. District Court Judge George H. Wu repeatedly asked the litigants to focus on settling the dispute outside of court, and it appears that the parties finally agreed to do so. 

The short filing, which was under 100 words, highlights the mutual desire to dismiss the lawsuit and also adds that "all claims that have been asserted in this action are dismissed in their entirety with prejudice" — meaning that the case cannot be relitigated. Additionally, each party agreed to be responsible for their own attorney fees. 

As of last October, CoStar had notched a handful of victories in the legal battle after Judge Wu rejected Move's request for a preliminary injunction and then later dismissed two claims — that Kaminsky and CoStar had violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the Comprehensive Computer Data Access and Fraud Act (CCDAFA) — from the case. 

What CoStar said: CoStar CEO Andy Florance had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and openly skewered the legal action taken against the company and Kaminsky. During a call to discuss the lawsuit with Real Estate News last July, Florance said the claims were "laughable" and that the dispute, which he described as a "PR stunt," was rooted in the ongoing battle for traffic and agent attention between the competitors. 

Florance still sees the ordeal as a public relations effort from Realtor.com — and specifically parent company News Corp, as he noted during an April 7 phone call with Real Estate News — to hurt CoStar, Homes.com and Kaminsky. Florance said that Move was "unable to ever substantiate any damages because no damages ever occurred," but News Corp "achieved everything they wanted" by generating "a ton of media" for the lawsuit and claims.

"It was a nasty PR stunt. There were innocent victims in that PR stunt. They made serious accusations about trade secret theft. They have serious motivations to try to do anything they can to compensate for the losses they're suffering in the marketplace," Florance said. "CoStar is fine and Homes.com is fine, but they dragged a guy through the mud and accused him of doing things he did not do."

After the lawsuit was filed, Kaminsky and his team of 8-10 people were "unable to work" for Homes.com and CoStar, Florance said. However, Kaminsky was on the CoStar payroll for a "long time after he couldn't work for us," Florance added.