Who Owns the Word MLS

Who Owns the Word MLS?
Lately I have been coming across more and more real estate boards that having been banning the use of the word “MLS.” They can't use it in print, radio, TV and especially Internet to convey the service they offer. The public knows what the MLS is and expects their agent to offer it. If they don't see that, they are going to go to the next guy that does. So if agents have their hands tied and the boards are selectively enforcing this rule, it makes for quite an unfair business environment.
It's akin to a car salesmen not being able to use the word car because a corporate lawyer felt it was leaving the company open to a lawsuit because they were being bias to trucks and SUVs. The corporate lawyer recommended the salesmen only use the words automobile or personal transportation device to cover their asses (I mean bases).
This is basically the same reasons some Board of Realtors are banning the use of the word. They feel since some brokerages opt out of the MLS, the public is getting only a subset of the data and that would be misleading. Thus the board's corporate lawyers are afraid this will leave them open to legal action. Hogwash, just because some stingy brokerages want to keep everything in-house shouldn't affect all the other agencies from being able to use a word on their advertisements. This is border line insanity and the only way it is going to stop is if you, the broker, stand up and flex you legal muscles. You need to make the board more afraid of a lawsuit, from their reaction to being afraid of lawsuit, then just being afraid of a lawsuit. Whoa, lots of lawsuits.
If any broker out there wants to flex their muscles here is some ammo to help them out.
History of the MLS (Multiple Listing Service)(Reprinted, in part, from the Fifteenth Edition of the Handbook on Multiple Listing Policy, 2001)
Multiple listing, in one form or another, dates back into the nineteenth century. The first Boards of Realtors® were established as “Real Estate Exchanges.” On certain appointed days, the Members of a Board of Realtors® gathered at the Board offices and “exchanged” information about their listings. They, in effect, carried on an auction as they frequently came prepared to purchase certain property desired by their principals, but listed by another broker. This practice was common in the 1880s and 1890s. Shortly after the end of the nineteenth century, the term “multiple listing” was in use. It is mentioned as an activity of Boards of Realtors® as early as 1907. In the 1920s, multiple listing had become widely accepted. The expansion of this function continued through succeeding years and spread throughout the country with the result that today hundreds of local Boards of Realtors® provide Multiple Listing Services, in one form or another, to their Members.
This little tid-bit of knowledge may have put you to sleep, but if you read carefully it unveils an important tool in your tool belt to quash the insanity. The tool is the fact that the word MLS was in the public domain before NAR or any other formalized real estate board was in existence.
Thus, the word is public, out there and no one can limit the use of the word. Stand up to the board, it only exists because you pay your dues. The board of Realtors is set up to represent you and make you job easier not harder. Stop this craziness right now, before they try and tell you can't use the word realtor or something crazy like that. Oh shucks they already did. Good luck out there, don't let the man keep you down.

Know MLS Boards that Limit Usage of Word “MLS”
Trend MLSNWMLS Carolina Multiple Listing Service Austin Board of Realtors
Teton Board of RealtorsRMLS, Oregon
Justin TracyMarketing Director
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