Company Claims Patents On Generating A Map From A Database; Getting Real Estate Industry To Pay Up

from the lovely dept

Judith Lindenau alerts us to the news of a company named CIVIX-DDI, who holds two incredibly broad and obvious patents on generating maps from a database of location info:

• Patent 6,385,622: "System and methods for remotely accessing a selected group of items of interest from a database."
• Patent 6,415,291: "System and methods for remotely accessing a selected group of items of interest from a database."

Now, I know that patent system supporters always get angry at me for declaring patents obvious, but take a read through the claims (not the abstract) and I defy anyone who knows anything about programming to explain how these patents do not describe incredibly obvious concepts.

Either way, CIVIX-DDI has realized that pretty much every real estate company around likely has a map generated based on a database of location info. So it's been going after them. It originally went after Realtor.com and a variety of local multiple listing services (MLSs). After a bunch were threatened, the National Association of Realtors stepped in, and a few months ago negotiated a settlement, paying up to keep MLSs from facing patent infringement claims. Of course, that's just given the company more money, and so now it's suing Trulia, a useful real estate startup, as well. The industry is realizing that this is putting a serious crimp on much needed innovation in the real estate space:

“Traditionally the real estate industry has been served by a lot of independent software companies. Think about it, Top Producer was a couple brothers from Canada, Advanced Access, eNeighborhooods, Lone Wolf, Tarasoft, Rapattoni, W&R Studios, etc. I could think of a bunch more but hopefully you get the point. It’s not like IBM, Oracle, Microsoft have really focused on real estate software/technology,” W&R Studios co-founder, Greg Robertson told AGBeat.

Robertson continued, “These patent trolls are threatening the ability for these independent software companies to do business. Meaning, bigger companies who have the assets to pay the extortion money will end up being the winners. Independent software companies will either go out of business or get gobbled up by bigger companies. Both scenarios equal less choice for real estate professionals.”

Regarding VC backed companies like Trulia and Zillow, Robertson said, “whether you like them or not, they are the ones really investing and leading on the innovation side. So we are all in this fight together. The consequences are clear; less choice and less innovation.”

Bad patents and bad patent lawsuits are not just a problem for the tech industry. They're hitting pretty much every industry these days, and those who support a totally broken patent system and the awful patents they produce are doing serious harm to innovation and the economy.

Filed Under: maps, mls, patents, real estate
Companies: civix-ddi, trulia

DailyDirt: Oh, Give Me A Home...

from the urls-we-dig-up dept

The housing market has obviously seen better times, but if you're willing to live in some small spaces, there are some creative housing designs out there. Here are just a few unique floor plans that your real estate agent probably won't show you.

• Some people figuratively say that they live at the mall, but some folks do it literally. It's art.. or something like that. [url]
• There's a really thin triangular-shaped house in Warsaw that's less than 30 inches wide at one point. [Insert tasteless joke here.] [url]
• HummerHaus is a somewhat plausible way to recycle 8 Hummers into an interesting living space. Too bad it's not a mobile home, nor eligible for a farm equipment tax exemption... [url]
• If you're looking for more architecture projects, check out what's currently floating around the StumbleUpon universe. [url]  

By the way, StumbleUpon can recommend some good Techdirt articles, too.

Filed Under: architecture, housing, hummerhaus, real estate

Which Does More Damage To Your Reputation: A Non-Competitor Using A Similar Name, Or Filing A Lawsuit That Pisses Off Many Potential Clients?

from the simple-calculations dept

Judith Lindenau points us to the news that a guy named Daniel Rothamel, who is apparently a well-known, well-respected blogger in the real estate world, is facing a questionable trademark infringement lawsuit because he blogs under the name the Real Estate Zebra. The company suing him, the Lones Group, claims to publish a blog and newsletter under the names The Zebra Blog and The Zebra Report. So, they're claiming infringement, because there can apparently be only one zebra in the real estate world. It's worth pointing out here that the Lones Group apparently is not actually in the real estate business itself, but provides marketing services to real estate agents.

Except, as the blog above notes, it seems that plenty of real estate agents know and like Rothamel, and they don't look too kindly on the Lones Group for suing him over what feels like a pretty frivolous complaint. The blog post above goes through a sampling of Twitter statements concerning the Lones Group and basically finds a bunch of real estate agents (remember: these are the people Lones is targeting as customers) bashing them for suing Rothamel. In typical legal fashion, the lawsuit asserts that Rothamel, in using his blog's name, has caused the Lones Group massive damage, but the blog post linked above points out that filing the lawsuit seems likely to have caused a lot more damage in pissing off a whole bunch of its potential customers.

Filed Under: blogging, daniel rothamel, real estate, trademark, zebra
Companies: lones group

Developers Trying To Treat Houses Like Copyright; Want A Cut Of Every Future Resale

from the bangs-head-against-wall dept

We've been noticing a trend in recent years of companies that sell physical goods trying to figure out ways to have those goods get some of the "advantages" of digital goods. For example, with physical products, once you sell it, in theory, the seller no longer owns a piece of the good. But with digital goods, they still hold the copyright, and often try to limit what you can do with the product even though you thought you "bought" it. So we've been disturbed by the rise of things like artist resale rights, which take away the right of first sale on artwork, and require you to pay the original artist every time you sell the product.

We've pointed out how this really only benefits wealthy artists, while harming up and coming artists -- despite those who support such laws claiming exactly the opposite. Their argument is that if a poor artist sells a piece of artwork on the cheap, and it later appreciates in value, he should get a cut of that increase in value. That argument fundamentally misunderstands economics, however. By adding that, you are effectively taking away the potential benefit to a buyer. You are lowering the possible return, making it less likely for them to invest in the first place. And we already have better mechanisms to help artists capture value if their older (cheaply sold) artwork becomes more valuable: it's called creating and selling newer artwork for much more money.

When Australia moved forward with just such a plan for artist resale rights at the end of last year, we asked mockingly, why not apply the same thing to every product, so that any time you sold it, you had to pay everyone else who owned it. In fact, we noted:

Imagine if that were the case with cars or houses as well? Who would ever think that was reasonable?

Well, apparently some financial firm in Texas think it's reasonable. As a few people have submitted, they're trying to convince developers to set up a system where they get paid every time a house gets sold and resold:

Freehold Capital Partners, a company started in Texas, is selling developers across the country on a plan that would attach a private transfer fee to homes, allowing developers to profit for generations.

The fee, written into neighborhood restrictions, would encumber the property for 99 years and throw 1 percent of the sale price back to the developer -- or his or her estate or another investor -- and Freehold each time the home changes hands.

My apologies for thinking that such a scenario was an "obviously ridiculous" one. Not surprisingly, Freehold is using intellectual property as the basis for its plan:

"Just like authors who write books and musicians who write songs that will be enjoyed for generations to come, those who improve property are also engaged in the creative process, and the economics of the transaction should reflect that reality," a Freehold brochure says.

Thankfully, people are protesting this, noting that it will drive down the price of homes, make it harder to sell them, harm neighborhoods and greatly "muddy" questions of ownership. Of course, all of that applies to copyright as well, but we won't go there just yet.

Filed Under: copyright, houses, real estate, resale

Do Morons In A Hurry Buy Real Estate?

from the how-confusing-is-this? dept

I was going to pass on this particular story, but so many people have been submitting it that it seemed worth at least a quick post. Real estate giant Re/max apparently has some lawyers with free time on their hands now that the housing market has collapsed. It seems like they must, because they felt it was necessary to oppose the trademark application of a small real estate agency in North Carolina that goes by the name Rehava. Remax and Rehava aren't particularly similar, and neither are their logos: But, that hasn't stopped Re/max from complaining. It goes beyond just the "Re" at the beginning. Apparently Re/max lawyers think that the line somewhere near the "e" will confuse people. And then, it just gets ridiculous:

"If you chop the top off of the 'h,' you (almost) have the 'm' in Re/Max. The next letter is an 'a,' and if you take the 'v' then you have half of an 'x.' "

This certainly seems like a situation where the moron in a hurry test should apply. Tragically, however, our legal system never seems to be in much of a hurry, and so its costing Rehava plenty of time and money to respond to the opposition by Re/max.

Filed Under: confusion, real estate, trademark
Companies: rehava, remax

Exaggerating The Mobile Threat To Google

from the sorry,-don't-see-it dept

There's a Business Week article making the rounds saying that it's not Microsoft or Yahoo that's a real threat to Google, but the rise of the mobile web, which will somehow shrink ad inventory and cause headaches for Google. It's a nice theory, but it's hard to square with reality. Increasing use of the mobile screen is hardly likely to decrease usage of a full computer screen. If anything, it will likely make desktop computing more useful in some cases. The article also makes a few other questionable statements. First, it points out that the mobile screen is smaller, so there's less ad inventory, and then it points out that the growing acceptance of the mobile web is due to the web browser on the iPhone. That sounds good, but the points contradict each other. The success of the iPhone's browser is due to the fact that it presents a full (not limited) web browsing experience -- so it doesn't really limit the inventory available to Google. Furthermore, even if the inventory was limited (which seems unlikely) that's not necessarily a bad thing for Google. Google's success has been based on making ads more relevant -- not just more available. This was what resulted in so much confusion during Google's recent earnings announcement. Google had made some changes to drive more relevant clickthroughs -- and while that may lower actual clickthroughs, it increases revenue. So, even if inventory is limited, if Google is still the best at making ads relevant, it will do just fine.

Filed Under: ads, mobile, real estate, search
Companies: apple, google

Are Newspaper Troubles Just Cyclical Rather Than Fundamental?

from the could-be-wishful-thining dept

While it's been quite natural for many folks to talk about the troubles facing the newspaper industry, it is worth noting that the newspaper business has remained quite profitable over the years. That, combined with a few other factors, has an analyst at Credit Suisse saying that the newspaper business is facing a cyclical slump, rather than as the result of a fundamental problem in the business. Thus, the analyst claims, the business should bounce back, perhaps as soon as towards the end of 2008. One factor in his argument is that troubles in the industry are due to the slump in real estate advertising, and newspaper fortunes should pick up as the real estate market begins to turnaround. While it does seem like pessimism over the newspaper business is overblown, this report is not particularly convincing. First of all, the downturn in newspaper stocks seems to have predated the real estate crisis by quite a large amount -- suggesting that the real estate troubles are only likely to exacerbate other problems. Furthermore, while the report does highlight how newspapers need to become more digitally focused, it's really not as simple as just "going digital." As we've seen time and time again, many newspapers have struggled with the transition, because they still view themselves as newspapers rather than news organizations, and they still seem to take a rather elitist view of themselves as gatekeepers, rather than as facilitators, helping people uncover what's important to them, rather than what the gatekeepers think is newsworthy. So, while we're hopeful that newspapers will figure it out, this particular report doesn't provide much support for the idea that newspapers are managing the shift well.

Filed Under: cyclical, newspapers, real estate, troubles
Companies: credit suisse

If You Want To Know Your Neighborhood, You're Best Off Going Online

from the ask-the-net dept

As Steve Levitt explains in Freakonomics, the primary power held by real estate agents is their control over information. Bizarrely, he compares them to the Ku Klux Klan (because they also derived their power from information), which is an absurd overstatement that seems mainly aimed at hitting readers on an emotional level. Nonetheless, the point is valid, which is why real estate agents fear the potential for the web to circumvent their control on real estate information. Recently, real estate site Zillow introduced a new offering to provide prospective buyers more information about their communities, while another site, StreetAdvisors, is introducing more tools to deliver the same thing. These have the potential to be significant, since real estate agents are limited legally in what they can say about a neighborhood. Seeing as this is crucial stuff for prospective buyers or renters, knowing that this information is available on the web but not through their agent will only hasten the industry's shift towards the web.

Filed Under: real estate
Companies: streetadvisors, zillow

Zillow Goes After An Area That Real Estate Agents Can't Touch

from the too-hot-to-handle dept

The rise of online real estate services like Zillow and Redfin has been a thorn in the side of real estate agents, who have voiced displeasure at the affront to their cartel. The basic tension stems from the fact that these services attempt to get around the professionals' control over real estate information. Now Zillow is looking to attack the industry from another angle. For various legal and ethical reasons, real estate agents aren't supposed to talk about certain details of a neighborhood, like demographics or crime rates, even though this stuff is pretty pertinent to would-be buyers. So in addition to its basic real estate data, Zillow plans to launch 6,500 new sites based around specific communities, where users can exchange information that they can't get from real estate agents. Going in this direction clearly makes a lot of sense, since it's a weak spot for real estate agents. If Zillow can use its existing position to become a home base for this kind of information, it should prove useful to people in the real estate market.

Filed Under: real estate
Companies: zillow