What's Your Username?

As social networking websites and blogs continue to gain popularity in the real estate marketing world, real estate professionals are striving to create unique and clever usernames that identify them publicly to others viewing the site. “Number1realtor” or “yourMichiganrealtor” or “jane_chicago_realtor” may sound like unique usernames, but each of these examples violates the National Association of REALTORS® trademark usage rules as well as the bylaws of the ion.local/state associat

The rules governing the use of the REALTOR® marks are the same regardless of the medium in which the marks are being used, i.e., print advertising, web advertising, URLs, e-mail addresses, usernames, and more. These rules require the REALTOR® marks to be used with the name of a member or with the legal name of a member broker’s real estate business. A separate rule prohibits use of REALTOR® with descriptive words or phrases. Because domain names must be lowercase and cannot accommodate the R symbol, the requirements to use capitalization and the registration symbol “®” with the REALTOR® marks are relaxed for usernames. Here are some examples of acceptable and unacceptable usernames:

Acceptable usernames	Unacceptable usernames
janesmithrealtor	realtor
jsmithrealtor	chicagorealtor
smithrealtor	yourchicagorealtor
jane_smith_realtor	your_chicago_realtor
realtorjanesmith	cyberrealtor
realtorjsmith	virtualrealtor
realtorsmith	realtor_mom
realtor_smith	realtorsolution
Illinois_association_of_realtors	localrealtor
@realtorjane	top_chicago_realtor
JaneRealtor	number1realtor
realtorjanechicago	hotshotrealtor
chicagojanerealtor	residentialrealtor
realtor_jane_number1	commercial_realtor
	janechicagorealtor

 
What’s your username? Does it comply with the trademark usage rules? To learn more about proper use of the REALTOR® trademarks online, contact your local or state association. Additional information is also available at NAR's Logos and Trademark Rules page.