The commercial real estate (CRE) data landscape is buzzing following a federal court's decisive ruling on June 26, 2025, which found CREXi deliberately infringed upon CoStar Group, Inc.'s copyrighted images, a judgment that significantly bolsters CSGP's formidable data moat. This legal victory, however, arrives just days after the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals revived CREXi's antitrust counterclaims on June 23, 2025, alleging CSGP maintains its dominant market share through exclusionary practices. This intricate legal dance sets the stage for a compelling narrative, where intellectual property protection and competitive fairness are locked in a high-stakes battle, profoundly influencing CSGP's strategic trajectory and the broader CRE data industry.
Key Developments: The CoStar-CREXi Legal Battle#
The Federal Court's Landmark Ruling on CoStar's Copyrighted Images#
On June 26, 2025, a federal district court delivered a resounding verdict, affirming that CREXi intentionally infringed upon CoStar Group, Inc.'s copyrighted images. The court’s findings were explicit: CREXi engaged in unauthorized copying and cropping of CSGP's visual content, a clear violation of established intellectual property (IP) protections. This ruling is a significant win for CSGP, reinforcing the legal boundaries around the use of proprietary real estate data and highlighting the effectiveness of watermarking and other protective measures employed by the company to safeguard its vast data assets Vertex AI Grounding API.
The court specifically noted that CREXi's actions extended beyond mere similarity, involving deliberate copying and modification, including