NAR's Trademark of Realtor

NAR or the "National Assotiation of Realtors" owns the ttademark forthe name realtor and any image that is associated with it. To not infringe on their trademark, ZIA mentions and uses the term Realtor in acccordance to the "fair use" act as follows. Fair use is consistent with the more limited protection granted to trademarks, generally specific only to the particular product market and geographic area of the trademark owner (in this case the word and assoiated words and symbols of Realtor in NAR.)

A nonowner (being ZIA in this case) may also use a trademark nominatively—to refer to the actual trademarked product or its source. (which is my intent to reference or allow NAR Members to reference) In addition to protecting product criticism and analysis, United States law actually encourages nominative usage by competitors in the form of comparative advertising.

Nominative use, also "nominative fair use", is a legal doctrine that provides an affirmative defense to trademark infringement as enunciated by the United States Ninth Circuit, by which a person may use the trademark of another as a reference to describe the other product, or to compare it to their own. (product in this case being the exclusivity of Real Estate Agents belonging to NAR and the NAME associated to them and the use there of..) Nominative use may be considered to be either related to, or a type of "trademark fair use" (sometimes called "classic fair use" or "statutory fair use")

The LAW of nominative use essentially states that one party may use or refer to the trademark of another if:

- The product or service cannot be readily identified without using the trademark (e.g. trademark is descriptive of a person, place, or product attribute) (in your case I can not identify a REALTOR or Member of NAR by title with out useing your "trademark name" title associated with your members.)

- The user only uses so much of the mark as is necessary for the identification (e.g. the words but not the font or symbol)(ZIA is complying with this by makeing Sure no image of realtors is being used and only Licensed Realtors can title themselfs as Realtors)

- The user does nothing to suggest sponsorship or endorsement by the trademark holder. This applies even if the nominative use is commercial, and the same test applies for metatags. (which is why ZIA built this page dedicated to telling people that we are, at no means associtated, sponsored, or endorsed by NAR. and again ZIA is posting this in the footer site wide to avoid confussion.)

The changes ZIA made are in accrodance to the law of trademarking in refernce to the nominative fair use act passed by United States Ninth Circuit Court.

This site list both, Local Realtors and Local Real Estate Agents. To use the title "Realtor" you must be an active member of NAR. We list both to not discriminate and to allow the public the opportunity to choose. The name Realtor is trademarked by NAR and by law we must distinguish the two and inform the public of the difference and our NON affiliation with NAR. To learn more on Realtors, NAR and Real Estate Agents click here.

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