Zillow Group, Inc.

Zillow Case

On July 30, 2025, CoStar filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against listing platform Zillow in federal court in New York for infringing almost 47,000 copyrighted CoStar photographs. This is one of the largest image infringement lawsuits in history, and could expose Zillow to more than $1 billion in damages.

CoStar’s Complaint shows many examples of CoStar’s watermarked images on Zillow’s website.

CoStar’s Complaint also shows Zillow displaying CoStar’s photographs on its partners Redfin and Realtor.com’s network of sites, following recent “syndication” deals in which Zillow paid Redfin and Realtor.com to carry Zillow’s listings.

CoStar’s Complaint highlights Zillow’s own description of how much information it can obtain from a photograph, recognizing details as granular as granite countertops. Based on Zillow’s own description, identifying and removing CoStar-watermarked photos should be straightforward—Zillow just chooses not to do it.

Since its founding in 1986, CoStar has invested billions of dollars to create the most comprehensive database of real estate information in the world, including the largest library of real estate photographs. CoStar has paid thousands of professional photographers to create millions of images, which are owned and copyrighted by CoStar.

CoStar protects its intellectual property by registering its photographs with the United States Copyright Office and marking its images with its distinctive star watermark. While CoStar licenses its images to customers, it does not allow its customers to use its images on competing listing marketplaces.

In its suit, CoStar alleges that Zillow is committing systematic copyright infringement. Specifically, CoStar is suing over how Zillow—not its customers—uses CoStar’s copyrighted photographs. Zillow misuses CoStar’s copyrighted photographs in multiple ways: