Morgan: I recently wrote a post about this same thing.  I got an email from Mary Newill telling me my website name was in violation and it was.  I was unaware as I had paid a Web Design and SEO company that specialized in RE sites to build and name my site.  I had to rename my site, change a lot of text and most importantly start from scratch in terms of SEO because it was being optimized for the term Rhinebeck NY Realtor.  This cost me from my perspective almost $2000 in changes and SEO fees that were paid to optimize a name I had to change. So, my point is, besides being in violation this can be a costly mistake. I now have a new name and new SEO company and am back on track but I lost almost 8 months worth of effort.

I am a member of NAR and my website was www.jfiverealtors.com after reading NAR policies on use of the word I changed the name to www.jfivehomes.com, I did not get a letter.  Frankly I think the word has become so common place in the industry I can't see why people can't use it, but that's my opinion.

Diana, I totally feel for you - that has happened so many times to REW members who found out to late and had to change. We have been aware of the rules and regs in terms of use in a domain name for years - I just never thought it applied to something as trivial as nicknames, user names on forums or blogs - Shout out goes to the NAR for being so great in assisting us with great education and follow up. - It sounds like you may be upset with your development company for suggesting that domain - I am not sure that is fair as the specifics of membership marks in domain names are not really part of traditional education for webmasters - just like many users I am sure at AR and elsewhere, it is simply a matter of education - they didn't know - I am sorry that you had to go through this unpleasant experience.

Jennifer - I have the same issue with the phrase MLS - it has become such common language for the public, that you should be able to use it - however in the case of a membership mark, there is legal protection under copyright law - in the situation of "MLS" - the boards do not own the copyright, yet still insist on restricting trade by not allowing their members (In many cases) to use phrases such as "San Diego MLS" - this really got my blood going several months back when one of my members was being pressured into changing their bio at Real Estate Webmasters directory - you can read about it at my NWMLS bullies their own thread

Morgan: I am a bit upset because they specialize in RE sites and use that as a big selling point. I am guessing every agent that has a site with them belongs to NAR so I do think they should have known.  It was left 100% up to them to create a domain name as they said they were experts and knew best. All that said they did create a visually pleasing site on which I get many compliments.

Diana, once again, I am totally empathetic to what happened - I am just trying to play a bit of devils advocate here - I have been working with real estate websites for many years now, in fact there is likely no-one that specializes in real estate websites like I do - that being said, I did not always know about this either - it was not until a member of our forum (Not a client thankfully) had this situation come up probably 3 years ago at least, that I was even made aware of it. Of course after that situation, and helping that member get through it, I have always advised users to steer clear of "Realtor" in their domain name (And with all the MLS stuff happening these days, I advise people to stay away from that as well) - but until I was made aware of this, did my lack of knowledge on this issue make me any less qualified to create or optimize great real estate websites, could I not still claim to "specialize" in this field without that knowledge? Is it not the "Realtor" who is the one that has this education? Web developers go to school for "web development" which does not cover all legal aspects of domain name ownership (Especially how it applies to a very specific field such as this), I would imagine your average web developer would still not know that this is a problem because they are like the public and think that "Realtor" is a common phrase or public domain, especially seeing as there are so many domain names still in violation. In contrast a "Realtor" is supposed to be someone trained in the various aspects, rules and regulations of their trade - should not all Realtors (This is not rhetorical as I don't actually know) be taught that there are proper and improper ways to use this membership mark? It comes down to responsibility, and who that falls on to educate - I can tell you that this situation came up because a member of the forum (An agent) was informed by his broker that even his user name on the forum might be in violation (3 years + and this is the first time it has ever been brought up at the forums) - so is it the brokers responsibility? 

Again, I think the situation is likely different because we do not register domain names for people - so we can't really get into this situation - but nevertheless I don't think (Although you may not be happy with other aspect of this firms service) that the onus should be placed so squarely on their shoulders to have known of this relatively unknown issue.

Okay, Morgan...point taken. So, as to the "MLS" usage.  Are you thinking we should not use the term "Search MLS Listings" or "MLS Search" as a Navigation bar on our sites?  What else would you call it to indicate to customers they have the ability to do these searches from your site? Thanks.

Well the first thing you need to do is check with your MLS board and find out if they even have an issue with you using the phrase - currently some do, and some do not (This does not mean they won't change their minds later as others have in the past so don't use MLS in your domain name) - if they do not have a problem with it, leave as is for now - if they do "Search for homes" or "Search Properties" something like that. 

Yeah i look at websites every day. There are alot of agents out there that are breaking these rules. From what i can tell NAR doesnt care.

The NAR certainly does care, however they do have limited staff and resources, and can only do so much. They have to make decisions based on maximizing the effectiveness of Mark protection, and they could never be able to keep on top of every infraction. 

Morgan, perhaps this would be of some use to you with respect to your Canadian clients.
I've made the Canadian Real Estate Association's Trademark Manual available to your here;

http://www.larryestabrooks.com/pdf/trademark2006.pdf

The CREA manual covers all the Canadian trademarks and is very easy to follow. 

I'm sure NAR must have a similar manual, but I'm not a member of NAR.