Zebra in the Courtroom

If you follow or participate in the world of social media even slightly, you most likely have seen the lawsuit filed by The Lones Group, Inc. against Daniel Rothamel and Strong Team Realtors, Inc. If you have not and are interested to get up to date on this case here is the actual complaint that was filed.

Branding, logos, and marketing are hot topics and big business right now within the Real Estate industry. The reaction through many channels of social media to this lawsuit being filed should not come as a surprise. Companies are learning quickly, social media can be your best friend or your worst nightmare. Depending on the strength of the audience that follows and supports you vs. the opposing team, one wave of tweets & a single post could mean the difference between “Open for Business” or “Out of Business.”

What impact could this pending suit have? How many others might begin to feel infringed upon? What if those with a “Dog Blog” start barking at all the other dogs on the internet? Suppose your family has always been in the “land” business. How many others might fall into the same category? If Jim Bob creates a Land Blog in Kansas about agriculture land for sale and Billy Bob creates a Land Blog about land for sale in Iowa and includes information about agriculture land, are they infringing? Or are they sharing knowledge as real estate professionals about agriculture land? Are you seeing how this suit being filed could open up the proverbial can of worms?

If the zebra has its day in court and this suit is not resolved or dropped before the jury is in, will they really be able to determine which zebra belongs to the plaintiff and which belongs to the defendant? Maybe one takes the black zebra with white stripes and the other takes the white zebra with black stripes. Or might we watch the case get sent to the supreme court and the poor zebra leave with no stripes. Or even worse, Washington decides to step in and change the zebra.