PropertyGuru is battling 99.co in court over alleged copyright infringement.

The issue first started in April 2016, after PropertyGuru filed a Writ of Summons against 99.co.

The ongoing case has just been made public and will be heard in the High Court on Wednesday, Sept. 20.

Cross-posting on 99.co

PropertyGuru's copyright infringement claim stems from a third party tool called Xpressor utilised by 99.co.

Xpressor allows property agents to cross-post on multiple real estate portals with little effort.

This resulted in listings with PropertyGuru watermark ending up on the 99.co website.

99.co partnered with Xpressor to provide the service to agents, but has since stopped.

The specific time of the complaint spans from Jan. 25, 2016 to May 11, 2016.

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PropertyGuru claims

PropertyGuru has made three claims:

• 99.co allegedly violated a settlement agreement from September 2015.

• 99.co allegedly induced agents to breach PropertyGuru’s Terms of Service contract by using the Xpressor application.

• 99.co allegedly reproduced photographs on its site that had a PropertyGuru watermark and thus infringed on the plaintiff’s copyright.

99.co has denied all the claims and is filing a counter-suit for groundless threats of infringement and trying to stifle competition.

It is also arguing that the agents have copyright protections, but PropertyGuru does not.

Courts decide

The courts have been left to decide if 99.co is responsible for the watermarked images that wound up on its website and if the material is considered copyrighted.

PropertyGuru has earned the ire of thousands of property agents in Singapore recently.

This was after it increased prices for listing on its site, which led to calls from agents to boycott the platform in favour of competitors.