?Move, NAR sue Zillow and Errol Samuelson

[Sam Leon]

Move, NAR sue Zillow and Errol Samuelson

According to court documents filed in the State of Washington, a lawsuit has been filed by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Move, Inc. (operator of realtor.com, Top Producer, SocialBios, ListHub, and several other companies) against Zillow, Inc. and Errol Samuelson.

The suit alleges breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets. In a statement, Steve Berkowitz, CEO of Move said, “we take our trade secrets and intellectual property extremely seriously as a valuable asset in our competitive position in the marketplace. We take action in cases in which we believe our trade secrets have been compromised. We have raised this matter for the courts and believe that the matter will be resolved judiciously.”

When Errol Samuelson, former president of realtor.com and Chief Strategy Officer at Move, Inc. left to become Zillow's Chief Industry Development Officer, reactions ranged from criticism of Move, calling it a poaching of talent, to a criticism of Samuelson, calling it a betrayal to the industry as NAR members own and have an operating agreement with Move (which competes with Zillow).