Luxury watchmaker Rolex has asked the owner of listings database software used by the Real Estate Board of New York to stop using the “R.O.L.E.X.” acronym.
The real estate board has a listings database, called the REBNY Listing Service, with more than 300 subscribing companies. The database uses a data transmission service called R.O.L.E.X. (or RealPlus Online Listings Exchange) offered by a company called RealPlus, said Steven Spinola, president of REBNY.
A lawyer for the Swiss watchmaker said the company objects to use of its name. “Rolex expressed its concern about the usage of the name in connection with their property database,” Brian Brokate, legal counsel to Rolex, said last month. Most corporations vigorously challenge perceived trademark infringements to continue precedents for the restricted use of registered product, brand and company names.
Eric Gordon, the owner of RealPlus, said if people refer to the service by the acronym R.O.L.E.X., there isn’t much his company can do about it. He also told The Real Deal he had not heard himself from Rolex. “They have not contacted me directly,” Gordon said. “I heard about this from Steve Spinola at REBNY. We’ll continue to use the name RealPlus Online Listings Exchange.”
Gordon has been designing listings technology since the 1980s, and rolled out the R.O.L.E.X. system in the beginning of 2002. Spinola said the Real Estate Board of New York is not involved in the dispute, though it had received notification of Rolex’s complaint.
“I’m aware of the watch company’s objections, as they conveyed that to me,” he said. “The issue of Rolex and the trademark for Rolex doesn’t involve the Real Estate Board because we don’t own that company. The issue of whether or not Eric Gordon should use the term ‘R.O.L.E.X.’ or use some other name to describe his transmission system is between him, his attorneys, and the Rolex people.”
The official name of the Real Estate Board’s listings system is REBNY Listing Service, or RLS, though it has often been referred to by board members as R.O.L.E.X. It is one of several listings services that, in the absence of a true multiple-listing service, serve the New York City real estate community, including Manhattan MLS, OLR, and Brokers NYC.