Metro. Reg'l Info. Sys., Inc. v. Am. Home Realty Network, Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 June 2013
• Docket Number: Civil Action No. 12–cv–00954–AW.
• Citation: 948 F.Supp.2d 538
• Parties: METROPOLITAN REGIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff, v. AMERICAN HOME REALTY NETWORK, INC., et al., Defendants. and American Home Realty Network, Inc., Counterclaim–Plaintiff, v. Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc., et al., Counterclaim–Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

948 F.Supp.2d 538

METROPOLITAN REGIONAL INFORMATION SYSTEMS, INC., Plaintiff,
v.
AMERICAN HOME REALTY NETWORK, INC., et al., Defendants.
and
American Home Realty Network, Inc., Counterclaim–Plaintiff,
v.
Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc., et al., Counterclaim–Defendants.

Civil Action No. 12–cv–00954–AW.

United States District Court,
D. Maryland,
Southern Division.

June 10, 2013.

[948 F.Supp.2d 543]

Margaret Aldona Esquenet, Whitney Devin Cooke, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett and Dunner LLP, Washington, DC, John T. Westermeier, Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett and Dunner LLP, Reston, VA, for Plaintiff/Counterclaim–Defendants.

Richard Scott Toikka, L. Peter Farkas, Farkas & Toikka LLP, Washington, DC, Christopher Ralph Miller, American Home Realty Network Inc., San Francisco, CA, for Defendants/Counterclaim–Plaintiff.

MEMORANDUM OPINION
ALEXANDER WILLIAMS, JR., District Judge.

Plaintiff Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc. (“MRIS”) filed suit against Defendants American Home Realty Network (“AHRN”) and AHRN CEO Jonathan Cardella on March 28, 2012, alleging copyright infringement, violations of the Lanham Act, and tortious conversion and unjust enrichment. Doc. No. 1. MRIS's claims are based on AHRN's alleged reproduction of real estate listing content from the MRIS Database onto AHRN's website, Neighborcity.com.

[948 F.Supp.2d 544]

On August 24, 2012, the Court granted Cardella's Motion to Dismiss, denied AHRN's Motion to Dismiss, and granted MRIS's Motion for a Preliminary Injunction. Doc. Nos. 34–35. Specifically, the Court ordered that “Defendant AHRN and all persons acting under its direction, control or authority are hereby enjoined from unauthorized copying, reproduction, public display, or public distribution of copyrighted content from the MRIS Database, and from preparing derivative works based upon the copyrighted content from the MRIS Database.” Doc. No. 35. The Court subsequently granted-in-part AHRN's Motion to Clarify, Reconsider, or Suspend the Preliminary Injunction Order, and modified the Order as follows: “AHRN and all persons acting under its direction, control or authority are hereby preliminarily enjoined from unauthorized copying, reproduction, public display, or public distribution of MRIS's copyrighted photographs and from preparing derivative works based upon MRIS's copyrighted photographs.” Doc. No. 65 (emphasis added).

On September 24, 2012, AHRN filed its Answer to MRIS's Complaint as well as Counterclaims against MRIS, National Association of Realtors (“NAR”), and Does # 1–25. Doc. No. 46. After MRIS and NAR separately moved to dismiss AHRN's Counterclaims, Doc. Nos. 62–63, AHRN filed First Amended Counterclaims on November 26, 2012, Doc. No. 68.¹ On December 13, 2012, MRIS moved to dismiss or summarily adjudicate AHRN's First Amended Counterclaims. Doc. No. 76. NAR moved to dismiss the First Amended Counterclaims on December 21, 2012. Doc. No. 81. AHRN subsequently moved to strike the Declaration of MRIS CEO David Charron from MRIS's Motion and for other miscellaneous relief. Doc. No. 83. MRIS also filed a Motion for Leave to File a Surreply to AHRN's Motion to Strike. Doc. No. 95. On May 3, 2013, the Court ordered the parties to appear for a hearing on the pending motions on May 29. Six days before the hearing, AHRN filed a Motion for Leave to file Second Amended Counterclaims and a Motion to Seal attachments thereto. Doc. Nos. 128, 132.

The Court has reviewed the First Amended Counterclaims and motion papers, and has carefully considered the arguments of counsel at the May 29 hearing. For the reasons articulated below, MRIS's Motion to Dismiss or Summarily Adjudicate and NAR's Motion to Dismiss AHRN's First Amended Counterclaims will be GRANTED–IN–PART and DENIED–IN–PART. Counts I, V, VI, and VII will be dismissed with prejudice, while Counts II, III, and IV will be dismissed without prejudice. AHRN will be granted fourteen days to file second amended counterclaims with respect to Counts II, III, and IV. The remaining motions will be DENIED as moot.²

I. FACTUAL BACKGROUND

The following facts are taken from AHRN's First Amended Counterclaims. The Court also incorporates by reference

[948 F.Supp.2d 545]

the factual background from its August 24, 2012, 888 F.Supp.2d 691 (D.Md.2012), and November 13, 2012 904 F.Supp.2d 530 (D.Md.2012), Memorandum Opinions.

AHRN is a five-year old San Francisco-based real estate brokerage referral services and technology company. AHRN, through its website Neighborcity.com and its AgentMatch software, provides information to home buyers and sellers on a nationwide basis by identifying real estate agents best suited to assist them in purchasing or selling properties in their local market. AHRN searches the Internet for data on real estate listings, identifies, rates, and ranks real estate agents most suitable to represent potential buyers and sellers in proposed transactions, facilitates the introduction of the agents to its individual customers, and monitors its customers' satisfaction with the agents to whom they were introduced. AHRN is compensated by receiving a percentage of a broker's commission if the broker accepts an AHRN client-referral and the referral results in a closed transaction. Consumers in the residential real estate market have responded positively to the increased access to information that AHRN has provided, and AHRN has grown significantly in the last year in terms of its revenues, transactions referred, and full-time employees.

Counterclaim–Defendant MRIS provides what is known in the real estate industry as multiple listing services (“MLS”). MRIS facilitates real estate transactions in the mid-Atlantic region by operating and maintaining an automated database consisting of compiled property listings and related informational content (the “MRIS Database”). To use the database, real estate brokers and agents must execute a subscription agreement, under which they agree to upload their real estate listings to the database and upon payment to MRIS are granted access to all the listings in the database and the right to display those listings on their own websites via a licensed data feed. Counterclaim–Defendant NAR is a trade organization which establishes and enforces policies and professional standards for its over one million individual member real estate brokers and their affiliated agents and sales associates, and 1,600 state and local member boards, which control approximately 80% of the roughly 1,000 MLSs in the United States. NAR's members compete with one another in local brokerage referral services markets to represent consumers in real estate transactions.

AHRN also names as Counterclaim–Defendants Does # 1–25, who are thought to be brokers and/or other MLSs and their principals. AHRN intends to amend its counterclaims to add the true names and capacities of these Counterclaim–Defendants once they become known. AHRN does not name Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. (“RMLS” or “Northstar”) as a Counterclaim–Defendant at this time. However, RMLS is the plaintiff in a similar action filed against AHRN in the District of Minnesota. See Regional Multiple Listing Service of Minnesota, Inc. d/b/a NorthstarMLS v. American Home Realty Network, Inc., Case No. 12cv965 (D.Minn.).

In broad terms, the thrust of AHRN's First Amended Counterclaims is that Counterclaim–Defendants instigated a program to register and obtain sham compilation copyrights for MLS listings, threatened to and actually enforced those copyrights against AHRN, refused to deal with and refused to license MLS data to AHRN, made false and misleading statements related to their copyrights and concerning AHRN, and passed anticompetitive MLS rules consistent with their goal of driving AHRN and similar innovators out of the market.

[948 F.Supp.2d 546]

A. MRIS Guidance Paper and Copyright Program

In 2005, MRIS President and CEO David Charron, MRIS General Counsel Erik M. Feig, and MRIS outside counsel J.T. Westermeier jointly wrote a two-part Guidance Paper issued in several versions and titled in the 2006 version, “Strengthening the Foundation: The Real Estate Listing Content Copyright FAQ and An Updated Program to Administer, Secure, and Enhance the Value of Real Estate Listing Content.” The purpose of the Guidance Paper was to invite the MLS industry to join MRIS's Copyright Program, the object of which was to defeat “the emergence of several high profile initiatives proclaiming ‘new’ and ‘improved’ alternative business models that they propose will dramatically change the real estate industry.”

The authors heavily publicized the Guidance Paper, featuring it and distributing it at various MLS industry conferences throughout 2005. According to AHRN, the Guidance Paper proposed the defeat of the alternative business models through subversion of the copyright process by claiming the existence of and encouraging the enforcement of copyrights in unregistered and uncopyrightable listing data consisting of facts assembled in compilations. The Guidance Paper urged the MLS industry to stop using the term “listing data” because the term implies that the real estate information supplied by MLSs is merely factual and thus not copyrightable. Instead, the Guidance Paper urged use of the term “listing content,” noting that “[w]hile listing content may not, on the surface, have the degree of creativity we associate with a song or a story or other types of so-called ‘creative’ works, there should be little question that listing content is protectable by copyrights.”

The MRIS Copyright Program, as outlined by the Guidance Paper, also urged “making each property listing a joint work owned by the broker and the MLS for copyright purposes. This joint work is created by merging each listing broker's and MLS's respective copyright contributions into a merged, unitary property listing with co-ownership of the respective copyrights. Joint ownership...