NAR has been emailing members over the last several weeks asking that they contact your member of Congress to stop frivolous lawsuits against the real estate industry. Here’s why:
A little over a year ago, J.B. Goodwin, a Texas broker/owner who has been in business for over 40 years, received a letter in the mail. It was a legal summons. Why? His company and other businesses were being sued in federal court.
Like most REALTORS®, he had a search feature on his website to help people find properties. Surprisingly, it turns out that providing a service allowing users to search for property online is patented – not by the inventor of the technology, but by someone claiming to own the rights to it.
What happened to J.B. is not unique. The company that sued him is known as a “patent troll.” Patent trolls exist solely to purchase patents and to use the threat of expensive lawsuits to extort money from legitimate businesses. Their goal is to get you to settle and write them a big check.
In J.B.’s case, he spent nearly 18 months battling this patent troll and there wasn’t one defendant who didn’t spend at least $75,000 – some spent over a million – to win their lawsuit.
J.B. didn’t back down and neither will we.
We’re taking this fight from the courtroom directly to Congress, so no other REALTORS get a letter like J.B. We need you to contact your Member of Congress today and ask them to supports H.R. 9 – The Innovation Act to close loopholes in our legal system to stop patent trolls and protect the real estate industry.
Please share this story with your colleagues and be sure to take action today.