According to National Association of Realtors attorney Laurene Janik, the Feb. 8th trademark hearing brought before the Trademark Trial and Appeals Board of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office took place as scheduled. The board will produce a written decision, which could take weeks or months. Agent News will report the decision as soon as the results are in.

The question before the board is whether the terms Realtor and Realtors are generic or words which can be trademarked.

Should the decision go against the NAR, the words Realtor and Realtors can no longer be used as membership or servicemarks, a form of trademark. The Realtor block logo was not challenged, according to Janik.

See previous stories on the topic for more details.

Published: February 13, 2002

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