Zillow Zaps Rival's Trade Secrets Theft Claims
Judge Richard Seeborg said Top Area Network hadn't provided enough detail to evaluate its claim that Zillow stole the idea for its "coming soon" listings.
April 13, 2015 at 11:37 AM
3 minute read
SAN FRANCISCO — Lawyers for Zillow Inc. on Monday succeeded in knocking out the vast majority of claims in a trade secrets lawsuit accusing the company of stealing the idea behind the “Coming Soon” listings on its real estate website.
In an 18-page opinion issued Monday, U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg of the Northern District of California dismissed all but one of the 13 claims brought by plaintiff Top Agent Network Inc., a members-only online community of real estate agents. Seeborg found that Top Agent Network hadn't alleged “with sufficient specificity the trade secret and nontrade secret proprietary information at the heart of its claims.”
Top Agent Network sued Zillow in October claiming that Zillow executives feigned interest in investing in the network only to get access to its website and steal its idea to post “Coming Soon” listings to the Internet. Top Area Network claimed it developed a way to collect and distribute listings before they're posted on the Multiple Listing Service, the list of properties available to all registered real estate agents which provides the backbone of listings for third-party sites such as Zillow. According to the complaint, Zillow launched its own pre-MLS “Coming Soon” feature in June just four weeks after cutting off talks with Top Agent Network.
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