AllProperty Media Pte Ltd, which owns Singapore’s leading online property portal, PropertyGuru.com.sg, has filed a law suit against iProperty in Singapore for defamation and copyright infringement.
“We have had friendly relationships with all our competitors over the last few years and this used to include iProperty, until 12 months ago, following a change of management. It’s sad that things have come to this,” said Steve Melhuish, Chief Executive and co-founder of AllProperty Media.
Recently, iProperty filed a lawsuit in Malaysia against HomeGuru Sdn Bhd, AllProperty Media’s Malaysian subsidiary, with regards to HomeGuru’s online property portal, HomeGuru.com.my.
Mr. Melhuish said the domain “HomeGuru.com.my” had been registered and used by AllProperty Media since 2010.
“We therefore strongly refute iProperty’s claims and we are seeking all such remedies and relief available to us under the law.”
Mr. Melhuish noted that as the lawsuit by iProperty against AllProperty Media is on-going, “we are unable to comment further upon our solicitors’ advice”.
“Suffice it to state that we, whether by ourselves or through our Singapore company, will be claiming against the use of ‘home-guru.com.my’ and ‘propertyguru.com.my’ domain names which are identical or confusingly similar to trade marks which we have common law rights to.”
Mr. Melhuish also stressed that the company’s vision is to provide customers with “the best service and most innovative products at competitive prices”.
As such, AllProperty Media has achieved the number one spot in Singapore based on these values. It strongly believes that the company will achieve the same in other countries in a very short period of time.
“Our claims for the leadership position in Singapore have always been based on reputable third party sources like Hitwise, Google and Alexa and covers all aspects of an Internet business, i.e. page views, visitors, unique visitors, number of agents, number of listings, etc,” he said.
“As a company with integrity, we will not make any claims without being absolutely certain that the figures are backed up.”