Think You Can’t Use “Realtor” in a Domain Name? 53,434 People are Doing It
Author: Jay T. - The EditorPosted on October 22, 2007
Filed Under NAR - Legal
The NAR trademark “REALTOR®” can only be used in a domain name under very specific circumstances.
From the “Membership Marks Manual” (here is the Table of Contents, here is the specific section on “Use on the Internet“):
Here is a brief list of the principal rules affecting use of the REALTOR® marks in domain names:
1. The term REALTOR®, whether used as part of a domain name or in some other fashion must refer to a member or a member’s firm.
2. The term REALTOR® may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.
I know of a few people that have received “cease and desist” letters from the NAR regarding their use of the term “realtor” in a domain name (RealtorGenius.com being the most recent I am privvy to).
From my perspective, it appears that the NAR randomly applies this rule.
“Why pray tell do you say that oh fateful editor?”
Well, let me count the 53,434 reasons….
Using a search tool available at DomainTools, you can find 53,434 active domain names with the word “realtor” in them.
Here’s a screen snip:
Granted, many of those 53,434 registered domains are in compliance with the NAR’s rules. However, many are not. I don’t have the time nor energy to review the entire list, but a quick scan shows many many domain names out there in clear violation of the NAR terms and conditions for using “realtor” in a domain name.
I mentioned a few special ones in this post - The NAR Fires a Shot at RealtorGenius.com
Why does the NAR allow domain names that clearly violate their rules to be openly sold?
You can go to just about any site that sells domain names and find examples of “illegal” use of the word “realtor”.
I was going to list some, but the list is apparently endless. Just Google “domains for sale” and take a look.
Thousands of illegal domain names? Hundreds of illegal domains hawked for sale on the open market? This all begs the question — how, when and where does the NAR chose to selectively enforce this rule?
Heck if I know. Does anyone?
Comments
17 Responses to “Think You Can’t Use “Realtor” in a Domain Name? 53,434 People are Doing It”
Leave a Reply
[...] Find the link to this great post here [...]
I keep meaning to take a photo of the for sale sign around the corner proclaiming the listing agent as “Your Realtor for Life.”
Yeah, whatever.
Does that mean that they “own” nar too? or just “Realtor”?
Perhaps the reason they don’t go after the 53,000 is that they do not see them as a threat. Or, maybe they are just playing the grade school game of “favorites!”
JD - I’m sick of that “tag line”… If you can’t use “BestRealtor.com” as a domain name, why is it prefectly acceptible to splay “Your Realtor for Life!” across a web site, yard signs, business cards, ads, etc etc?
Christiane - I don’t think the NAR has any hold on the term “NAR”. See this post.
There are some very derogatory uses of the word “realtor” in many of those 53,000 domains… The only thing one can assume is the NAR just applies this policy in a completely arbitrary fashion.
Frankly, what if you make your company name Great Inc. Then you could be GreatRealtor.com right?
It follows the rules doesn’t it?
If RealtorGenius.com had the name Genius Inc, they should be allowed to use that domain, even if it is descriptive.
I have actually exchanged emails with the person at NAR who does trademark enforcement for years. Frankly there is no way they can enforce most of the violations. They do not have the resources. And I think it is easier for them to enforce abuse by members of NAR than non-members. I have heard of instances where members were forced to stop using a domain so they let it expire. Then a non-Realtor bought it up and used it. It would cost them tons to legally pursue everyone misusing the domains so they mostly hope that the cease and desist letters are enough of a scare.
Also, owning or even trying to sell a domain with Realtor in it is not necessarily trademark infringement, is it? Only using it would be, I think. Maybe Joe @ Sellsius would know.
I got a cease and desist email from NAR over one of my domain names a couple of years ago. They almost put me out of business. I still control the domain name but I put it in the name of a family member who does not have a real estate license. I contend that with my domain name I invented a new word. The middle letters in the word are “realtor”. I wish NAR would spend more time helping us instead of worrying about a word that has taken on a life and meaning of it’s own. It really is too late to do anything about it and a waste of money to try. My money.
[...] 40,430 registered domains containing the word “realtor”. (Hey, it’s down from the 53,434 I noted in this Oct 2007 post…) [...]
I also receive a letter to stop using a valuable domain name yesterday. I am not a Realtor but help Realtors with their marketing. I will tell you this… Realtors and the NAR are making asses of them selves by making such a big deal of the name. I can tell you that 99 out of 100 normal folks don’t give a crap about their title or how they use the domain name. In my opinion, they should be helping Realtors with their business not bulling everyone else about a stupid domain name. I think next time I’ll go by owner…
I heard from them idiots yesterday to stop using my domain name.
I looked up trademarks for the words Real and tor hmmm they exist apparently Realtor has two words in their domain hmmm violations. I could be confused they are very similar aren’t they.
I basically told them to kiss my ass and have a nice day =0P
do you think something like “happyrealtors” infringes on the Realtor use too?
Curioso - absolutely.
My wife and I have been realtors for about 8 years now. The NAR has been harassing us for 5 of those years about our domain on our website which we’ve built from scratch pre-realtor.com to become the top rated website in our area. Now the NAR is getting serious, contacting our broker directly and sending letters to our local board. That’s our bread & butter and they want us just to scrap 8 years of hard work and start again from zero. Anyone know how I can get my domain name changed without losing my standing in the search engines? These people are ruining our lives
Okay,here’s the rundown, and I contacted the DoJ about it– they’re interested but first can’t get around the NAR’s smoke&mirrors that Realtors using the Mark is still a trademark issue. It’s not, by any means. I’m trying to explain to them that it is another policy of NAR that limits competition– another anti-trade issue that they’ve missed. This may be a long post, but someone has to speak up, tell the story, and we must form some type of public interest group that can be heard on this issue.
NAR takes advantage of the fact that few Realtors, few attorneys actually understand internet marketing, what it is, how it works. That’s a huge victory for NAR. It’s really all they need. Because it permits them to hide behind this nonexistent trademark infringement dodge.
MOST Realtors with websites pay to have them done and maintained. They do NOT know how they work, especially how they appear in the Search Engine (Google, Y!, etc) on those search results. That’s the key to this. NAR does know.
The case can be made that non-NAR members have no right to use the Mark. Realtors PAY to use the Mark in anyway they see fit that complies with ethics. In any trademark infringement action, the first “bar” that has to be crossed is “dilution or harm” to the Mark. Realtor’s websites do NOT dilute or harm the mark, in fact, they enforce and promote the Mark. Second, if Realtors can use the mark in any other advertising media EXCEPT internet advertising, why would that be? What’s so important about that that the NAR singled out URLs, only? The answer is money. NAR wants to wrongfully dominate internet marketing for all things Realtor, all things real estate in each and every state, city, town and region. It’s about money.
History: NAR started this policy after realtor.com came into being. At first, realtor.com offered free inclusion for Realtors at the site, including a direct link to the Realtor’s website. THEN, the light went on in their old fuddy brains. Why not CHARGE Realtors for inclusion? And so, within a couple of months, realtor.com removed all the Realtor website info and links and started a strong-arm campaign to sign them up. The great majority of Realtors (at least those that knew they didn’t need realtor.com because their site was doing just fine, thank you, did not sign up). NAR took notice of this and took steps to wipe out competing Realtor websites. But only those with area descriptors in the URL.
The no-use of Realtor in a URL WITH AN AREA DESCRIPTOR, such as “sarasotarealtor”, “miamirealtor” policy was born. Why just the area descriptor prohibition? That’s the first clue. Because, NAR learned that, consumers most always (duh!) type in search terms like this: find miami realtors, find a Boston realtor. NAR wanted all those searches to lead to— realtor.com. Tada. WHERE, if a Realtor wanted to be “seen”, he/she would have to subscribe, get an NAR-hosted site, etc. More money for NAR.
And of course, the more hits realtor.com got, well, the more advertisers. More money!
NAR learned that consumers looking for goods, services, etc., tend to pick from the top three results on any search at Google, Y, MSN, etc. BUT! All the really good area-specific websites were beating the pants off them. How to stop this? Stop the competing websites, kill them, shut them down. Force ALL consumers to realtor.com.
Does this help the consumer choose the appropriate area Realtor when he gets to realtor.com? No. Hardly ever. Because, only those Realtors who are paying blackmail money to realtor.com are shown. Perhaps less than a 10th of the Realtors in any given area are seen at realtor.com. So, is the consumer getting a fair deal? Certainly not. As a matter of fact, at the lowest tier of inclusion at realtor.com, Realtors are given no way for a consumer to contact them, period.
That notwithstanding, the next clue as to their intent and objective is the new “no redirect, no 301″ policy. What exactly does that mean and how is it a clue?
When a website has matured and is doing well (and that means it shows up well in a search at G or Y or MSN), it has accrued “trust”, “backlinks”, size, content, age– all of the factors that are actual “votes” for the authority of the site, it’s usefulness, its RANKING. It is everything. Absent all that, the site would disappear into the ether. Those that don’t have most of those “votes” do not do well.
So, a 301 redirect (from old “noncompliant” site to new “compliant” site), which is recognized by all the search engines permits all that “juice”, “clout” to follow to the new “compliant” website. You would think, NAR problem solved. Old noncompliant website gone, new compliant website up. That was the first policy. But, NAR discovers that– horrors! The new compliant websites are still competitive. Still high in the search engine results! Hence the “no redirect policy”.
Now, with no redirect, guess what? Your new site is dead and buried. It may never, ever regain the ranking it worked so hard to achieve.
So, why kill and bury a now compliant website? Because it’s not about the use of the Mark, it’s about competing with NAR for advertisers, consumers, money, money, money.
And, NAR is buying these defunct sites up. Do we really believe that they’re worried about the Mark? Or are they planning to sell them back to Realtors– or are they using them in some arcane way to redirect to realtor.com?
Real To R hints the name realtor.com
Real To R
spell out real in red
spell out To in green
spell out R in blue
now you have Miami real to R
and the url is miamirealtor.com
so you are not using realtor anymore
you are using a new phrase real to r
What’s in a name really? Just do your business.