CoStar is once again taking aim at its rival for allegedly stealing its copyrighted property images. The PropTech giant has already won similar high-profile lawsuits against RealMassive and Xceligent, both now bankrupt. This time the real estate data giant filed a lawsuit this week in California against Los Angeles-based commercial real estate platform Crexi for what it claims is the theft of more than 50,000 images that it then used in its real estate listings. The suit is a follow-up to one CoStar filed two years ago, when it accused Crexi of stealing 10,000 of its images. In the complaint, CoStar said new evidence shows that more images were taken and that the alleged theft is part of a wide scale scheme to profit through use of the content and what it calls “unauthorized use” of CoStar’s services.
CoStar said more than half of the alleged stolen images were taken after the previous suit, which is still active. The company also alleged that law enforcement recently seized evidence from companies in India connected to Crexi that were used to obtain the unauthorized images. It’s unclear what damages CoStar is seeking with its latest filing, but the firm said prior rulings have valued its copyrighted photos and listings at $50,000 per image and $50,000 per listing. CoStar leaders said in late October of this year that the company would be focusing on expanding its residential investments and hinted that more acquisitions are in the future.
