The following email was sent to me by Steve Westmark. I posted about Steve and the Minneapolis MLS back in April. Seems the Chicago MLS got the same 
idea but has now changed their mind. Or should that be “minds”? Or “numb skulls”?
I really do not understand how any association that is supposed to have been formed for the benefit of Realtors can possibly come up with some of the retarded gibberish that some of them do come up with. I fully understand that it isn’t polite to poke fun at retarded people but in cases like this I just can’t help it. What tortured logic makes it alright for Homegain – and others like them – to use the term MLS in their URLs but not alright for an agent to do it? Is it that the dimwits who sat on that board thought it might be a lot easier to push those local agents around than it would be to push the attorneys who work for Homegain around? Homegain would have been willing to litigate until they won, the local agents were not.
I would also have been willing to litigate and I would not have just fired a few emails back and forth. In addition, I would have waged a local and national PR battle (for starters, naming all the names of the spineless and mindless dolts that passed such a ruling) that would have had them playing defense – not me.
(why yes, I do write this sort of post to make good friends with the various boards of directors around the country:-)
_________
—– Original Message —–
From: Bryan VantHof
To: steve@stevewestmark.com
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2007 3:45 PM
Subject: Fwd: Update on Chicago area use of MLS in URL’s
Steve,
Thought you might find this interesting. Thanks. Bryan Vant Hof – fishMLS Realty
———- Forwarded message ———-
From: Gene Carey < Gene@view-mls-homes.com>
Date: Oct 15, 2007 4:11 PM
Subject: Update on Chicago area use of MLS in URL’s
To: bvanthof@fishmls.com
Bryan,
Just wanted to give you an update on Chicago areas plans to start fining agents who use MLS in their domain names. After sending them some very extensive emails threatening lawsuits and bringing in the ACLU for income interference, they changed their minds and WILL allow the usage as follows (I bolded important parts):
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rules Revision regarding the use of “MLS” on Web Sites
The MLSNI Board of Directors revised Section 38 Use of the term “MLS” at the September 12th BOD meeting.
They amended Section 38 to allow the use of the term “multiple listing service”, the acronym “MLS”, or any derivatives in Domain Names, web addresses, and URL’s, provided that the name does not imply and/or infer that the web site is associated with, or operated by Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI).
For a copy of the complete rule please login to http://www.mlsni.com & go to Tools and Resources – Rules and Regs – rules 9-12-07.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I had already added some verbiage to the top of my site prior to their decision to revise the Rule. I have a good freind that uses “SearchLocalMLS” and recently advised her to add some verbiage ASAP since her URL ‘infers’ it IS an MLS service, whereas mine simply says “View”. Hopefully they will leave me alone.since they never answered any of my emails that went into more detail of what I would have done if the Rule change was implemented and they started fining me. Notice in their revision they say “infer that the web site is associated with, or operated by Multiple Listing Service of Northern Illinois (MLSNI)” saying NOTHING about being associated with the “MLS” but instead the “MLSNI” which I took them to task over.
Gene
www.View-MLS-Homes.com
—– Original Message —–
From: Bryan VantHof
To: gene@view-mls-homes.com
Cc: Jason Borowitz
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: Response from Join the team at FishMLS.com
Gene,
Thanks for checking in. You might also receive a note from my business partner Jason but wanted to respond to you inquiry in regards to the usage of MLS in your URL. Our temporary restraining order has resulted in a settlement. The settlement states that the 4 companies in the Twin Cities that have MLS in their company names can continue to operate as is but with a short disclaimer on our advertising and website similar to what you have now. The agents that work for other companies that have websites with MLS in their URL where given something like 6 months to shut down their websites but were allowed to have an instantaneous redirect to their new website if a client typed in the old URL with MLS in the name. If you do the research you will find that your local MLS or any local MLS does not own the term MLS with any type of trademark other than how it is included in the name of the organization. Also, Major League Soccor owns a trademark on MLS as well. The parties to our litigation agreed to a settlement because we do not have the resources to carry this on for years. We do believe that what the local MLS is proposing is anti-competitive and unfair and believe the courts would have ruled in our favor. The problems we ran in to were that most agents didn’t understand or care about this issue because they thought that because they don’t have any websites with MLS in their URL it didn’t affect them and the agents who did have MLS in their URL would not stand up for themselves (or did not really have much time to think about it because we only really organized less than a week before the ruling was to take affect) for fear of alienating themselves from thier corporate offices ( i.e. Remax, Realogy, Home Services, Keller Williams, etc.). Make no mistake, this initiative of cutting us down was initiated by the larger companies. Our board at the MLS is controlled about (70%) by 3 companies (Remax, Home Services, & Realogy) and the members of the board are not typically producing agents anymore but corporate employees that are spoon fed by their national corporate offices and, in turn, agents “drink the Kool-Aid” because most of them don’t know that this ruling is ultimately designed to take more money out of their pockets, maybe not now but it will at some point down the road. It throws traditional corporations for a loop because it is not the traditional way of doing business. Actual, one of the parties to our side of the litigation was a member of the board of the local MLS. He quit in protest to this rule. He was told by the board that he should “Get in line” with this ruling. He was not allowed to have an opinion on this matter. He did whatever he could to educate other realtors that this ruling ultimately affects them as well, not just the agents with MLS in their name. My belief is that ultimately one of the larger corporate entities will buy out HomeGain or one of the other popular national websites with MLS in their URL as a lead generator and sell them back to their agents at a 35-50% referral fee thereby hurting the local Realtor. The Department of Justice should get involved and I had heard a rumor that they are very interested in what develops nationally on this subject but it is going to take more voices to stand up and say this is wrong and for agents to stand up for themselves. Maybe Chicago will be the market that the DOJ says stop because of the size. I hope so. Minneapolis was maybe a testing ground for a national initiative. The local MLS’ are our organizations and we have let them become controlled by corporate entities that are corporatecentric, not agentcentric because most agents are concerned about the next sale, not the next rule and we are too afraid to stand up or don’t have the time to to stand up to the people that cut our commission checks. It’s definately a hot button issue and I will be curious to see how it plays out in your market. By the way, I in no bashing agents from these larger companies as I see you are one of them. I can even understand why the corporate monster takes such an interest in this because it could mean cash out of their and their broker’s pockets potentially. What agents need to understand is that we are in control. There are by far more agents than brokers or companies. We need to become more proactive in what’s best for our own personal business (myself included), not what’s best for the people taking half of your commission in fees. Sorry for the rant. Please keep us informed about what transpires in your market on this issue and if there are any indications that any agents or companies are going to take a stand like we did here. I would be interested in participating somehow. Thank you.
Bryan Vant Hof
fishMLS Realty
Co-Owner/Realtor
612-865-3158
On 9/22/07, FishMLS.com <fishmls@fishmls.com > wrote:
Recipient: 1,9
Name: Gene Carey
Phone Number: 847-322-7391
Email Address: Gene@View-MLS-Homes.com
Licensed: yes
Preferred Contact Method: email
How long licensed:
Conerns:
Jason, With Chicago implementing the no \’MLS\’ rule in a URL, I was wondering how your temporary restraining order was progressing. My site is #1 on Google for all my area keywords and they are giving me 6-months to shut it down. How do you get a site back to #1 in only 6 months? Has anyone considered going to the American Civil Liberties Union or the Department of Justice? Why does Homegain own and operate www.MLS.com as well as www.MultipleListingService.com if the local MLS\’s claim ownership of the term?
Keep up the fight!
—
Bryan Van’t Hof
fishMLS Realty
612-865-3158
Owner/Realtor
DB says:
On a somewhat similar note, after Lani’s husband had to change his domain name because it had the term Realtor on it, I went back and started revising the real estate book I have been working on and took out the terms agent, broker and Realtor and changed them all to “real estate professional.”
November 10, 2007 — 10:56 pm
Eric Bramlett says:
The sad thing is…the term “Realtor” will soon be synonymous with “dinosaur” unless they get their act together. The term carries little (to no) weight with consumers, anymore. If NAR cared about its members, or the consumers, it would actively prosecute its negligent members – of which there are many – and protect its (now defunct) status as an organization to turn to for trusted professionals.
The fact that someone is (R)ealtor just means that he/she has the magic key to get the buyer into every house.
November 10, 2007 — 11:51 pm
Michael Wurzer says:
This whole effort by these entities to put the genie back in the bottle (pretending that MLS isn’t a generic term and that the MLS is for agents and brokers only) is a colossal waste of time, money and reputation. Instead, these folks would do well to leverage the popularity of the term MLS. A long time ago now it seems, I wrote a post advocating that the NAR should create a marketing campaign around IDX. The idea is that IDX sites are some of the most comprehensive listing sources and focusing marketing effort on those might be a good use of NAR’s time and money, actually helping agents and brokers instead of annoying them.
November 11, 2007 — 8:03 am
Bob Wilson says:
The term Realtor is different. It has been successfully defended in court numerous times. No one can use improperly without the risk of losing in court.
MLS is different. It is an acronym with no trademark protection as it pertains to real estate. It is used by a soccer league.
If I put up SearchSeattleMLS.com as a lead gen site, no one can do anything to me since I don’t belong to the board that controls that MLS. The only people these boards have been able to stop are their own members.
These board will back down the minute a member files a restriction of trade lawsuit.
November 11, 2007 — 11:02 am
Athol Kay says:
What about the use of “mls” in any URL?
i.e.
http://www.randomagent.com/blog/what-is-up-with-this-MLS-ruling
How does that play out?
November 11, 2007 — 1:47 pm
Fred says:
Having been in a few trademark/domain disputes in the past (unfortunately)….. I don’t believe you can trademark INITIALS, which is what “MLS” is. That is why ERA (real estate) is also ERA laundry detergent and ERA music group….
November 11, 2007 — 6:09 pm
Tim O'Keefe says:
This is easy. My friend got “busted” for this in the early 90’s.
He told them to get Major League Soccer to give up their trademark -MLS- and he will be glad to give up using the name acronym. They backed off.
November 13, 2007 — 12:01 am
Bob Crain says:
I agree with Bob W. 100%, it is a restriction of trade.
While I have seen a several “Blind” sites that are trying to fool the consumers into thinking that they are actually the regional MLS, most of the agent or brokers sites and site owners with mls in the url are following the rules, have their contact information listed and are using the term MLS as a generic term.
ASK 100 consumers what MLS listings are and they will tell you that they are homes listed with a real estate agent.
November 14, 2007 — 12:04 pm
Morristown says:
The more I see of these people who think they know enough to manage what we the Realtors do, better than we do, the more I wonder what high school allowed them to graduate.
These people need to be given something productive to do rather than the current destructive things they do.
November 24, 2007 — 5:46 pm
Jim Lee says:
There are some other like minded Realtors at http://www.freethemls.com/
Jim@JimLee.com
PS, this is not a good place to discuss possible actions or game plans.
January 21, 2008 — 9:18 pm
Jon Loren says:
Could You put out a*** SOS*** to all Real Estate Agents to E-Mail: Actual winning solutions to me —As the San Diego MLS is about to “BEAT” on their struggling members as if the market were not bad enough-? I do not understand why these EMPLOYEES some in NAR ,CAR , *&* Local MLS Executives are now making $75,000-$200,000 and above when the Local agents make a faction of this and the EMPLOYEES have full medical +++ Benes (Trips,Paid Vacations and on and on and on) And, the Real Estate Agent is on call 24/7+=365-Days a year
Basically , the MLS EMPLOYEES operate like the Federal State & County & Cities EMPLOYEES and they treat the citizens with the same “{“Look” down there Noses) on the regular blue and white collar private industry workers who many go without Health Insurance ,Retirements or ANy BENES WHATSOEVER-!-????????
I see “AMERICA” with the blue and white collar workers
And their MASTERS whether at a Real Estate MLS ,CAR ,NAR , or the BANKS or Goverment organizations with a wider and wider gap till something or someone snaps and this Pay *&* Benes get National /International attention.
I say take ALL the Senators and Leaders of ALL kinds and put EVERYONE in “America on Medicare and Social Security and STOP ALL THESE SPECIAL DEALS THAT ARE “NEVER” Publicized on Pay-Benes-.
And start showing General Respect and Fairness to ALL “AMERICANS”.
I for one as a small businessman who worked in his Fathers factory no less than 12-14 hours a day and generally 7 days a week
And still at 58 have and do work these hours
—So , some big-shot at NAR-CAR-or Bankers or Goverment person I pay againist my will can so they can live like the “BANKERS” and steal my measly wages / commissions.
February 25, 2009 — 11:34 am