CoStar Group et al. v. Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc.
CoStar first filed its copyright infringement complaint against Commercial Real Estate Exchange Inc. (“CREXi”) in September 2020 in the Central District of California. CoStar’s current Third Amended Complaint can be found here: CoStar's Third Amended Complaint
CoStar’s Allegations:
- CoStar owns and has copyrighted the almost 50,000 images at issue, all found in CREXi’s systems. None of those images are owned by brokers or CREXi. They’re taken by CoStar photographers, owned by CoStar, and registered with the Copyright Office. CoStar takes the additional step of watermarking the images with the CoStar logo. See CoStar’s Third Am. Compl. (“TAC”), Dkt. 910-3 ¶¶ 2, 29, 56, 87-92.
- CoStar licenses its images to brokers for use in listings they represent. CoStar’s license prohibits using images on competing listing marketplaces. See TAC ¶¶ 54, 87.
- CREXi engaged in a campaign of mass infringement against CoStar that lasted years. See TAC ¶ 117.
- CREXi’s written policy, and actual practice, was to copy images from CoStar’s LoopNet site, and from LoopNet brochures, crop out the CoStar watermark, and post the images on CREXi.com. See FAC ¶¶ 4, 8, 10-15, 17-20, 43-44.
- CREXi copied tens of thousands of CoStar-owned photographs pursuant to its “copy and crop” policy. See FAC ¶¶ 4, 10-20, 38-40, 117-123, 171.
- CoStar is entitled to millions of dollars in damages as a result of CREXi’s industrial scale, deliberate, infringement. See TAC ¶¶ 51, 67.
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For press coverage relating to CoStar’s litigation against CREXi, please see the following sources:
September 25, 2020
CoStar Accuses Rival of ‘Flagrant and Widespread’ IP Theft
Read more on IP Law News -
December 20, 2022
CoStar Adds 1,000 of Photos to Copyright Suit Against Rival
Read more on Bloomberg Law -
December 20, 2022
CoStar Sues Crexi for 'Flagrant and Widespread' Intellectual Property Theft
Read more on Globe Street -
December 20, 2022
Senate Coalition Is Right: CREXi and Corporate IP Theft Are Problematic
Read more on California Business Journal
Other Proceedings Against CREXi
- CREXi’s co-founder and CEO, Michael DeGiorgio, previously worked for Ten-X, the commercial real estate auction site that is now part of CoStar. In 2016, Ten-X sued CREXi and DeGiorgio for stealing trade secrets from Ten-X in order to set up CREXi. The California Superior Court issued an injunction against CREXi and DeGiorgio after finding that Ten-X was highly likely to succeed on its claims. Ultimately, CREXi agreed to pay seven figures in damages and DeGiorgio issued a public apology for his wrongdoing.
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For press coverage relating to a prior trade secret theft case against CREXi brought by Ten-X, now part of CoStar, see here:
May 10, 2017
Ten-X Wins Settlement from CREXi in Trade Secret Theft Lawsuit
Read more on Bloomberg Law
Other Proceedings and Judgments Against Related Parties
- CoStar obtained judgments and injunctions against three of CREXi’s offshore agents in India for their role in facilitating CREXi’s mass infringement of CoStar’s intellectual property. These judgments did not obtain damages for CREXi’s own wrongdoing.
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For press coverage relating to the successful lawsuits against CREXi’s offshore agents, see here:
August 02, 2023
CoStar lands another blow in mass copyright infringement dispute
Read more on ManagingIP -
April 17, 2023
Key witness flips in US real estate copyright row
Read more on ManagingIP
- CREXi’s founding investor, Leon Capital, was sued by CoStar for hacking into CoStar’s password-protected database. In 2024, a federal court issued a permanent injunction against both Leon Capital and its affiliate Tiltbot.
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For press coverage relating to CoStar’s successful case against CREXi’s founding investor, see here:
September 13, 2024
Latham & Watkins Secures Breach-of-Contract Damages in CoStar CRE Database Access Lawsuit
Read more on LAW.com
Congressional Letters Regarding CREXi
- Senators Thom Tillis (R), Chris Coons (D), and Marsha Blackburn (R) wrote a bipartisan letter to the Department of Justice calling for an investigation of allegations that CREXi executives used passwords issued to legitimate subscribers to access and download content from CoStar’s database. A copy of that letter can be found here.
- Representative Ben Cline (R) also wrote to the Department of Justice calling for an investigation into allegations of CREXi’s access to the CoStar database and CREXi’s use of offshore agents to facilitate copyright infringement. A copy of that letter can be found here.
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For press coverage relating to the successful lawsuits against CREXi’s offshore agents, see here:
August 02, 2023
CoStar lands another blow in mass copyright infringement dispute
Read more on ManagingIP -
April 17, 2023
Key witness flips in US real estate copyright row
Read more on ManagingIP
Other Competitor’s Complaint Regarding CREXi
- Biproxi, a CREXi competitor, issued a press release complaining that CREXi was ripping off content from Biproxi’s website in order to use the content in CREXi’s product. Biproxi stated that it had “recently discovered what it believes to be actions by Commercial Real Estate Exchange, Inc. (CREXi) compromising the integrity of the online commercial real estate listing industry. ‘Based on our investigation, it appears that CREXi attempted to copy our online data in an attempt to create content at no cost to enhance their won listings, bypassing the established channels necessary to develop beneficial syndication partnerships,’ said Gordon Smith, Biproxi’s CEO.”
