Quicken Loans Sued by Data Startup Claiming Trade Secrets Theft

The mortgage-lending firm Quicken Loans Inc. was sued by real-estate data analytics startup HouseCanary Inc. for allegedly scheming with an affiliate to gain access to its data and technology through a sham licensing agreement and develop competing appraisal software.

The suit by San Francisco-based HouseCanary was filed days after it won a jury trial against the affiliate, Amrock Inc., which calls itself the biggest independent title-insurance and valuation firm in the U.S. Jurors in Texas last week said Amrock stole HouseCanary’s trade secrets “with malice” and awarded the startup $706 million in damages.

In its March 16 complaint in ...