Lofty Inc. is my kind of company.
Here’s a company that knows how to push back against extortionist nonsense.
Vivek Shah has been serving hundreds of demand letters under California’s CIPA. To all eyes the claims are basically bogus– barely colorable claims designed to extract a quick settlement from companies will to shell out a few dollars to save defense fees.
Well one company has decided to go on the offensive and it is just beautiful to see.
In LOFTY INC., v. VIVEK SHAH, 2:26-cv-07425 (C.D. Cal) Lofty alleges receipt of a demand letter from Shah. Unlike most companies Lofty refused to just ignore Vivek or pay him off.
Instead it sued him in a federal lawsuit seeking declaratory relief as to whether his claims have merit.
This is a brilliant move for a couple of reasons.
One, it takes the fight to Vivek–always a good thing.
Two, it raises the exposure on the enormity of the problems Vivek is creating– also good.
But most importantly it creates a vehicle to neutralize these terrible claims once and for all.
And Lofty is a great company to tell the tale because it is a technology platform that powers the real estate businesses of more than 91,000 agents and brokerages across the United States, and over 30,000 websites. If Vivek’s theory is correct Lofty will be required to undertake significant re-architecture of its platform, potentially including all 30,000 deployments on its platform, requiring months of staff resources, procurement of new technology, and implementation cost across a platform serving 91,000 active customers and over 30,000 deployments.
So the stakes are high for Lofty– and rather than wait for the next knucklehead to come along and challenge it Lofty is looking to make good case law on the back of Vivek Shah who is highly unlikely to mount an effective defense of his legal position.
Brilliant and bravo!
Will keep an eye on this one.