City of Pensacola Florida

NEW YORK – May 6, 2010 – Real estate research company First American CoreLogic has sued eight rival companies, including Zillow.com, for patent infringement, claiming to own the rights to the "automated valuation model" (AVM) these companies use to estimate property values.

At issue is ownership of a complex mathematical model. Besides Zillow, CoreLogic is suing Fiserve, IntelliReal, Interthinx, Lender Processing Services, Precision Appraisal Services, Real Data and Realec Technologies.

In the lawsuit, CoreLogic demands that the companies stop using the AVM model and pay treble damages for loss of profits.

Zillow released a statement: "We have seen the complaint, and have no comment at this time. Zillow has to plans to change any aspect of our business as a result of this complaint."

None of the firms have officially responded to the lawsuit, and a court date has not been set.

Source: Orange County Register, Jeff Collins (05/04/2010)

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