CoStar denies Move’s allegations that it stole trade secrets

Move Inc. and CoStar are back at their battle stations as CoStar and James Kaminsky, the employee at the center of the companies’ legal fight, filed their replies to Move’s second amended complaint on Tuesday.

Move’s lawsuit alleges that Kaminsky, a former employee of Move-backed Realtor.com who now works for CoStar’s Homes.com, stole trade secrets from Move in order to fuel the rapid growth of Homes.com.

In response, CoStar, claims that the lawsuit “is an effort by Move — a failing company that relies on selling leads — to try to slow the rise of Homes.com, a competitor whose ‘your listing, your lead’ approach has seen it surpass Move in the marketplace.”

“Move’s flailing effort to stymie the success of Homes.com led it to file this suit claiming that CoStar used Move trade secrets to compete against it. That was knowingly false — Move had no evidence of such use,” CoStar’s filing states.

CoStar says its traffic has increased in part due to its “billion-dollar marketing campaign.” Additionally, CoStar notes that it has “invested in the content offerings on Homes.com, and that its content differentiates Homes.com from competitors.”

CoStar’s filing goes on to note that Kaminsky’s job title is “Editor, Homes.com,” a fact that Kaminsky corroborates. His role is defined “as an editor writing about, and supervising others writing about, New York condominiums.” This definition is in contrast to what Move has alleged in its complaints.

In its reply, CoStar largely denies Move’s allegations or states that it is lacking sufficient knowledge to provide information on Move’s claims. But CoStar admits that it has not yet provided Move with “forensic images it made of Kaminsky’s CoStar-issued computing devices” as the images contain “substantial irrelevant information, including a broad range of CoStar’s confidential, proprietary and privileged information.” As a result, CoStar argues that Move should explore a more targeted discovery or a discovery of his personal devices.

For his part, Kaminsky has denied most of the allegations against him. While he admitted to being part of Realtor.com’s News & Insights team, he denies that he “ran” the department or “regularly accessed” certain documents. His filing also notes that he signed a confidentiality agreement with Move and Realtor.com.

Kaminsky also admits to sending links to Move documents to his personal email account, including “the employment summaries of several of the individuals on the Realtor.com News & Insights team.” He also said he used his Move email account to grant access to certain Move documents via his personal email address. And he admitted to deleting documents from his Move laptop and clearing the browser history before returning it to the company and later accessing some Move documents between Jan. 11 and June 3, 2024.

Kaminsky, however, denies “that he repeatedly returned to access the trade secret files because he knew the information was being regularly updated by Move personnel and denies that the information contained in the documents would constitute ‘planning stretching months into the future.’”

Move filed this second amended complaint in mid-November after two of its claims against CoStar were dismissed in October. The suit was initially filed in July.