Washington state Superior Court Judge Barbara Linde has granted a preliminary injunction against Zillow, Inc. and Errol Samuelson over the hiring of Samuelson as its chief industry development officer approximately four months ago. Samuelson had been president of realtor.com® and chief strategy officer of Move, Inc. Shortly after Samuelson’s jump to Zillow in March, Move and the National Association of REALTORS® filed a suit against Zillow and Samuelson for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and misappropriation of trade secrets among other actions.

The National Association of REALTORS® and its subsidiary Realtors Information Network, Inc. and Move subsidiaries RealSelect Inc. and Top Producer Systems Co. are also named as Plaintiffs in the suit.

According to the injunction granted this week, Samuelson “had access to and gained knowledge of material, non-public information belonging to all of the Plaintiffs. Much of this material, non-public information constitutes trade secret information belonging to the Plaintiffs.”

Among the many restrictions imposed by the injunction, Samuelson is now prevented from engaging in “efforts to sell leads or to develop or market products that gather and sell leads to real estate agents, brokers, or franchsiors” and from “developing products that create websites for real estate agents” for a period of six months. Samuelson will also be prevented from participating in “efforts to obtain direct feeds of listing data from Multiple Listing Services, real estate brokers, franchisors, or associations.”

NAR issued the following statement:

"NAR is very pleased that the court has granted our request for the preliminary injunction in this lawsuit. It is a significant win for NAR, REALTORS®, Move, and realtor.com®. The ruling affirms the value of the information and tools that NAR and Move have created for REALTORS® and consumers and denounces those who would misappropriate trade secrets for their own benefit. NAR works hard to provide member services and resources and will always be committed to protecting REALTORS®’ interests and their relationships with clients and consumers."

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