As one who has been busted by NAR's Internet Police Department I have some unintended and unwanted expertise on the proper and correct use of the sacred word "REALTORŪ" in a domain name.
First of all you must actually be a REALTORŪ to use the trademarked R word.
If you are a REALTORŪ you can log in at
www.Realtor.ORG and read the rules:
"III. Use on the Internet
When surfing the Web for real estate homepages, it's quite common to come across sites belonging to REALTORSŪ. If you are looking to add your own electronic presence on the Internet, it is easy to get caught up in designing your own web page and choosing a domain name which will capture the attention of surfers and make you easily identifiable. REALTORSŪ often want to use the REALTORŪ marks as part of their domain name or address to distinguish themselves, but they must keep in mind that there are rules governing proper use of the REALTORŪ marks that must be adhered to at all times regardless of the media used. These rules are found in the National Association's Membership Marks Manual, a reference manual explaining proper use of the REALTORŪ marks including examples of correct and incorrect uses. Here is a brief list of the principle rules affecting use of the REALTORŪ marks in domain names:
1. The term REALTORŪ, 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 REALTORŪ may not be used with descriptive words or phrases. For example, Number1realtor.com, numberone-realtor.com, chicagorealtors.org or realtorproperties.com are all incorrect.
3. For use as a domain name or e-mail address on the Internet the term REALTORŪ does not need to be separated from the member's name or firm name with punctuation. For example, both johndoe-realtor.com and johndoerealtor.com would be correct uses of the term as a part of domain names and jdoe*realtors@webnetservices.com and jdoerealtors@webnetservices.com are both correct uses of the term as part of an e-mail address.
4. The REALTORŪ block R logo should not be used as hypertext links at a web site as such uses can suggest an endorsement or recommendation of the linked site by your Association. The only exception would be to establish a link to the National Association's web site, REALTOR.org, or its official property listing site, REALTOR.com.
The public has adopted the use of all lower case letters when writing domain names, even those containing trademarks. Therefore, for purposes of domain names and internet addresses only, there is an exception to the rule on capitalization of the term REALTORŪ and it may appear in lower case letters."
Do it right the first time; it's a lot cheaper. ;-)
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Jim Lee, CRS, ABR, GRI, e-PRO
Realty Executives Associates
Knoxville, Tennessee
http://www.KnoxvilleMLS.com Jim@KnoxvilleMLS.com 1999 REALTOR of the year, Knoxville Association of REALTORS
I am not an attorney, I am not your attorney, and I am not giving you any legal advice. This response is only given for informational purposes and should not be construed or substituted for legal advice.
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