Judge affirms $706m jury award in Amrock-HouseCanary IP dispute

The judge has also added almost $29 million in prejudgment interest

Judge affirms $706m jury award in Amrock-HouseCanary IP dispute

A judge has upheld the $706 million jury verdict in favor of real estate analytics firm HouseCanary against Quicken Loans affiliate Amrock, according to a report by San Antonio Express-News.

In a final judgment, State District Judge David Canales affirmed the award and added almost $29 million in prejudgment interest.

In March, jurors in Bexar County, Texas, awarded HouseCanary more than $235 million in actual damages and $470.8 million in punitive damages after finding that its valuation and analytics trade secrets, proprietary systems, and data were fraudulently misappropriated by Amrock.

In his ruling, Canales also awarded approximately $4.5 million in attorneys’ fees to HouseCanary. The company had asked for $72 million in fees.

A spokesman for Amrock, formerly known as Title Source, said the company was disappointed with the ruling.

Following the verdict, Amrock has alleged that it has found evidence that fraud occurred during the trial. The company claims that false testimony was offered by certain witnesses during the trial. Additionally, it alleges that HouseCanary colluded with Amrock employees to hide that HouseCanary had no proprietary technology.

“We are disappointed that the court did not throw out the jury’s verdict in light of HouseCanary’s expert witnesses testifying there was no wrongdoing, and further evidence contradicting the claims of ‘trade secret’ misappropriation,” said David Prichard, attorney for Amrock. “We look forward to putting the whistleblowers’ evidence of fraud and collusion before the judge and are confident that once this evidence is aired, justice will prevail — a verdict procured by fraud and false testimony cannot be allowed to stand.”

"HouseCanary is pleased that the court has entered final judgement in this case," HouseCanary co-founder and CEO Jeremy Sicklick said. "We were confident that the court would follow the law and enter a judgement thoroughly consistent with the jury's verdict. The jury and the court, during two months of trial, heard extensive evidence of Title Source's misappropriation of HouseCanary's highly valuable trade secrets related to its real estate valuation analytics along with Title Source's fraudulent conduct and contractual breaches. The judgment reflects the jury's findings in favor of HouseCanary on every single issue."

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