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04 May 10 Is First American Sue Happy?

Yes First American CoreLogic Inc. filed another lawsuit.  First American filed a lawsuit against eight companies, including Zillow Inc. and Lender Processing Services Inc., claiming the companies’ automated property valuation services infringe on a 1994 patent.  In their complaint, CoreLogic seeks an injunction against the companies to prohibit them from using or selling any products that fall within the scope of the patent, and for triple damages to “compensate CoreLogic for its profits lost.”

None of the companies named in the April 16 lawsuit have filed formal a response to the complaint, and none would comment to Inman News.  The companies named in the lawsuit provide automated valuation model (AVM) services to businesses or consumers — computer-generated property value estimates that typically rely on a property’s unique characteristics, public property records and other market statistics.

A spokeswoman for Zillow — a site that became one of the Internet’s most popular real estate portals by offering instant, free property “Zestimates” to consumers — said the company was aware of the lawsuit, and “has no plans to change any aspect of our business as a result of this complaint.”   Realizing that public housing records are made public, many mortgage insiders think that the Mortgage Giant is grasping at straws.

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