Rule Would Keep ‘MLS’ From Becoming Generic Term
Rule Would Keep ‘MLS’ From Becoming Generic Term
Is it the end of MLS as we know it? Not exactly. But a movement is afoot to protect the sacred system that has facilitated real estate sales for more than 50 years.
The MLS Committee approved a recommendation for a new model MLS rule that will go before NAR’s board of directors Friday. If it passes, NAR will create a model provision that MLSs could adopt locally that would prohibit MLS participants, subscribers, and licensees affiliated with participants from using “MLS” in their company name, Web address, or other venue.
The recommendation would also prohibit those groups from suggesting to consumers that they’re giving direct access to the MLS.
The recommendation grew from a discussion at the REALTORS® Midyear Meetings in May 2007 about widespread use of the term MLS across the Internet.
Ann Bailey, a former MLS executive and co-founder of the San Clemente, Calif., consulting company, Pranix, told forum participants at the time that if they didn’t start educating members to stop using “MLS” as a synonym for “listings display,” MLS would cease to have meaning as a venue for broker cooperation.
At a Multiple Listing Service Forum before the committee meeting, a standing-room-only audience vigorously debated the recommendation. Supporters of the provision said the rule would prevent “MLS” from becoming a generic term.
Opponents said the cart was already out of the barn; any MLS that adopted the prohibition would put its members at a competitive disadvantage to nonmember practitioners in the area.
Meanwhile, a few MLSs around the country are starting to rebrand themselves altogether. Because REALTORS® can’t trademark the term MLS (an attempt to do so was rejected by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office some years ago), some MLSs have come up with altogether new names. In Indianapolis, there’s the new Brokers Listing Cooperative, or BLC. And in Northern California, six MLSs recently announced plans to consolidate and form the Northern California Real Estate Exchange, or NCREX.
