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Nearly a week after Move and CoStar Group filed competing expedited requests in a theft of trade secrets lawsuit, California District Judge George H. Wu ruled in favor of CoStar’s request for an expedited discovery. Judge Wu ordered both parties’ counsels to meet and outline the terms of the discovery. If they cannot agree on those terms, they must file a joint brief explaining the unresolved issues by Aug. 5.
“We are delighted that the Court rejected Move’s attempt to obtain an injunction without discovery and granted CoStar’s request for discovery from Move and for a hearing in September,” CoStar General Counsel Gene Boxer said in an emailed statement to Inman. “We have said all along that Move’s case is a PR stunt, and Move’s attempt to hide the facts was in line with that. We look forward to holding Move to account.”
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Although Judge Wu ruled in favor of CoStar’s request, a Realtor.com spokesperson said the company doesn’t see the ruling as a loss since the company’s request for a preliminary injunction and limited expedited discovery are still on the table. In his one-page ruling, Wu moved the hearing for the injunction and limited expedited discovery to Sept. 23 at 8:30 a.m.
“The latest filings have only bolstered our case,” the spokesperson said in an email to Inman. “CoStar’s employee has admitted under oath to accessing and deleting many of Move’s electronic files, confirming our allegations.”
“Although CoStar initially denied any wrongdoing, they have put their employee on leave,” they added. “Today, the judge acknowledged CoStar’s conduct appears to have been improper, and we couldn’t agree more.”
Judge Wu’s ruling is the first major step in the lawsuit between Move and CoStar, which have been locked in an intensifying battle over the past year regarding CoStar’s website traffic claims for its residential portal, Homes.com.
Move escalated its efforts against CoStar on July 3 with a theft of trade secrets lawsuit that claimed former Realtor.com editor James Kaminsky accessed Move-owned files outlining core information about Realtor.com’s News & Insights editorial budget, audience and revenue numbers, alongside employment summaries for several Move employees, to bolster CoStar’s traffic growth efforts.
Since then, Move has made several requests, including a preliminary injunction to block Kaminsky and CoStar’s alleged access to Move-owned files, a limited expedited forensic discovery of Kaminsky’s electronic devices (e.g., desktop computer, laptop computer, cell phone), and an expedited Order of Protection request to prevent the disclosure of confidential and trade secret information during the discovery process.
CoStar answered back with a few filings of its own, including the request for an expedited discovery and the rescheduling of the preliminary injunction hearing. CoStar said the expedited discovery — which was granted on Monday — would allow both parties to access unredacted versions of previous filings and accompanying exhibits so each side can submit a “more fulsome briefing” ahead of the preliminary injunction hearing.
They also put Kaminsky on administrative leave “out of an abundance of caution” to relieve Move’s concerns about providing unredacted files during the discovery process.
Kaminsky spoke out for the first time on July 25 through a 36-page statement, which outlined his recollection of events and stated support for CoStar’s filings. In the statement, Kaminsky said his layoff from Move was “surprising” and put him in a six-month scramble to find a new job before his severance ran out.
The former Realtor.com editor said he deleted “financial, personal and medical information” from his Move-owned devices and email account and only accessed several Move-owned files that included his team’s salary and bonuses, an ongoing list of Realtor.com News & Insights stories, a “2022 or 2023” presentation on audience and revenue projections, and two other files with passwords to third-party subscriptions, WordPress instructions, and staff contact numbers.
These files, he said, didn’t include any proprietary information and were only used to “jog his memory” about his achievements at Move during his job search. He said he only accessed files two times after starting his position with CoStar on March 11 — once when he searched through old Move emails for paystub information and realized Move hadn’t removed his personal email address from those files and then again when he accidentally clicked on a document titled “News & Insights content decks.” The link, and several others, was dead, he said.
“I have not engaged in any work at CoStar that competes with Move’s News & Insights group, nor have I assisted anyone at CoStar in doing so,” the statement read. “I am currently on administrative leave. I have no access to CoStar’s computer system and am doing no work for CoStar other than assisting with the response to Move’s lawsuit.”
Kaminsky’s lead counsel, Brown Neri Smith & Khan LLP Managing Partner Ethan J. Brown, said he’s pleased with the court’s decision, saying it’s clear that his client is “being used by Move as a pawn to attack CoStar.”
“Given his personal circumstances—he was let go by Move after years of exemplary and highly successful service while being the sole breadwinner of his family of four—Move’s decision to smear Mr. Kaminsky is inexcusable,” he said in an emailed statement. “… Mr. Kaminsky is a sacrificial lamb, treated as mere collateral damage in Move’s attempt to hit back at a competitor.”
“If Move has any real concerns regarding Mr. Kaminsky’s actions they would have quickly been resolved if they had just picked up the phone and called him to discuss what he did and why he did it,” he added. “Move and its CEO are directly responsible for the significant personal and reputational damage they have caused Mr. Kaminsky, who has a spotless, decades-long career of high-level media positions, through the pursuit of this unnecessary legal action.”
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