Change my blog profile name

[Dave Kovaleski]

How do I change my profile name for my blog? It was suggested by my broker that using REALTOR in my name may be a no no. Any input on that? If I were to change it, is it best to just use my full name?

Thanks in advance
Dave C-21

[JimOlenbush]

I think the term Realtor can be used after your name, but not after the city. That is referring to domain names for your site. I guess the blog could fall under the same guidelines since it is part of the blog's url. Here are the guidelines:

http://www.realtor.org/letterlw.nsf/pages/internetuse

If your blog url changes I guess you would lose some history in the index, but if you don't change it there is a small chance you could be forced to later. I don't know if anyone polices this kind of thing. I guess if your blog ranks well for some terms then a competitor maybe could complain about the trademark usage??

Webmaster, what is your opinion?

[svrpaul]

You can use it after your name but not a city name. If you build it up and start getting attention, somebody will turn you in.

It happened to us for our first domain name back in 2000 -- once it started doing good in the search engines -- BAM! -- the threatening letters with big fines from our assocation and national came in and we had to give it up. (Could not even do a re-direct which we found extremely unfair.) Interestingly, some people in Canada use it now for selling referrals even though the domain does not come up in searches we know of.

Also.. if for some reason something happens to your REALTOR status, you will not be able to use the term REALTOR in your domain even if it is used after your name... something else to consider just in case.

[Dave Kovaleski]

Thanks for th replys. How can I change my name with out hving to recreat my whole account? Any webmasters help?

[webmaster]

I honestly don't think it applies here: You have not created that filename, it is system created (And it is not the URL) which is what the membership mark references. Also, this is not your domain, so you are not responsible (At least at the time you didn't know) how we name our files.

I am not sure (And would like to learn) how this membership mark works in terms of nicknames or handles on forums and blogs - if this is the case, then everyone with Realtor in their username, or their nick has to change it unless it is DaveRealtor etc

I will email Mary Newill today, and ask her thoughts on this - I should have an answer from the NAR by tomorrow

Thanks

[Homesurfer]

Dave's current user name is a violation of the National Association of Realtors service mark guidelines. As an individual member of NAR, no one is allowed to put a city name in from of the term Realtor. It doesn't matter whether it is in an URL or not. If he continues posting uder that user name, he is essentially actively participating in the service mark violation.

Source material for the guidelines is located at:
http://www.realtor.org/letterlw.nsf/...rademarkmanual

I've researched this in fairly deep detail in the past.

[webmaster]

Doh! - What does this mean for all the users of forums, etc that have "Chicago Realtor" as their forum username? Do we need to have all of them change their user names as well?

[webmaster]

Ok - just got off the phone with Mary, and surprise surprise Terry Light is right again

It looks like we are going to have to have a policy change here at REW in terms of user names for the forums and also the blogs - here is the gist of of the situation: (I will post an official letter from Mary as soon as she sends it over)

Even though not as much attention is paid to blog and forum nicknames (Simply due to the amount of time and resources available to the trademark administration team) - the very same membership mark rules apply as would a domain name or email address - thus using a "Realtor" in conjunction with a descriptive phrase or area (Such as Chicago Realtor) is in violation of the membership mark.

We will be requiring that all users not in compliance with NAR standards in the forums or blogs change their user name - we will allow 1 week for those users to pick a new user name, and have it implemented (The staff will assist) - once that week is up, we will have to manually change usernames of those members who have not updated.

Terry, thank you very much and Dave - thanks for bringing it up, we learn something new every day

[JimOlenbush]

Dave could also consider changing his name to Pocono.

I am sure if you ask NAR they will say everything is in violation. I don't know how they could control every instance though. Some agents have email addresss like cityrealtor@aol-com, and titles of web pages often say city realtor, etc. What about a myspace profile name? It would seem impossible to police every possible violation.


EDIT: Just saw Webmaster's post. Wow, what a pain to change everyone. Maybe Realtor could just be changed to Agent for a lot of user names and blogs.

[webmaster]

Dave you will actually have to change your forum username as well.

Jim - in trademark protection, it is my understanding that you must actively pursue the protection of your trademark to the best and fullest of your ability - of course this does not mean that you can catch everyone, especially on the web, that would be impossible - you just have to try, and of course address situations that are brought to your attention. Terry probably knows more about this than I do.