Marc Rasmussen's site thesarasotamls.com has been shut down due to trademark issues in his ongoing battle with the Sarasota Association of Realtors (SAR). This post by Morgan Carey of Real Estate Webmasters explains all the details. This action is very unfair since Marc has a disclaimer in his site stating that he is not Sarasota MLS. No one has confused his site for the Sarasota MLS. There's never been any consumer complaints. Marc was cleared of all ethics violations filed against him by (NAR) National Association of Realtors. (ICANN) International Corporation of the Assignment of Names & Numbers ruled against Marc on charges on trademark infringement by SAR and Marc was ordered to give up his domain name and transfer it to SAR.
Marc's only crime is being too successful. Marc used to get over 700 visitors per day on his site. He had hundreds of number one rankings for many Sarasota real estate related keywords. The visitors were not looking for Sarasota MLS; they wanted to search homes for sale in Sarasota. Marc was not trying to trick or deceive anyone. It is unfair to single out one Realtor just because of his overwhelming success online. The SAR board should allow Marc to keep his domain name and redirect it to his new website www.luxurysarasotarealestate.com so he doesn't lose all the years of hard work he has put into the site.
We are linking to his website from our Miami real estate website's home page. Let's all get a No SARjacking Badge to show our support for Marc Rasmussen.
Related posts: Joe & Colleen, Judy Orr, SAR Pokie
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