Real estate investment and property management software company Yardi Systems has filed a lawsuit against competitor RealPage Inc.
The complaint, filed with a U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, alleges that RealPage and EverGreen, a small consulting firm whose assets RealPage acquired in 2009, wrongfully infiltrated Yardi’s internal website, altered confidential internal data and illegally downloaded Yardi’s copyrighted and trade secret software, software manuals, price lists and other confidential information. Yardi’s claims against the company include copyright infringement, trade secret misappropriation and unfair competition, among others.
In response to the suit, RealPage issued a press release stating that it "believes that Yardi’s hidden intent in filing this lawsuit is to inhibit EverGreen from competing with Yardi’s consulting service organization and that this lawsuit is a tactic to limit alternative choices for Yardi clients, thereby restraining a more open and competitive marketplace.
"RealPage intends to defend this action vigorously and to protect EverGreen’s right to provide services to clients that they share with Yardi."
"We are hopeful that with the court’s assistance, the parties can reach a fast and fair resolution of this matter," Yardi Systems said in a statement through its legal firm, Bingham McCutchen.
Bingham McCutchen also represented software and hardware systems company Oracle in a similar intellectual property rights lawsuit against European software company SAP. A jury awarded Oracle $1.3 billion in damages for copyright infringement last month.
While historically focused on the commercial and multifamily real estate sectors, Yardi expanded its operations in the residential real estate market when it acquired Point2 Technology Inc. and real estate data website PropertyShark last year.
