About Barnstable County, MA

A new and fresh town councilor has been elected to our Precinct today. Hats off to James Cote for running a neat and enthusiastic campaign. He won hands down over Jim Crocker who has had the seat for several years. Speaking from an Osterville Cape Cod Real Estate owners' perspective, in a village with over thirteen real estate offices, the tides are turning to a new and fresh approach which has been needed for a decade or so. Having not grown up in Osterville on Cape Cod I have felt at times like an outsider within the community. Recently as President of the Osterville Rotary Club things have changed. The guidance and respect of our elders throughout the community are assisting our new members with forward thinking about Service Above Self. As we approach 2012 we all look forward to new, young and fresh leadership which will afford opportunities for all! Congratulations to the Cote family, not only Rotarians, but friendly neighbors.

I see in an article that Bank of America is taking as long as 120 days to close a loan. It is such a problem that some experienced loan officers are leaving BoA for other companies that don't have the underwriting delays. You can read the article I read here.

I am not a lawyer, but here are questions for listing agents, buyer agents, lawyers, and consumers:

• listing agents: If a buyer is getting a loan through BoA, is it in the best interest of the seller to accept that offer without at least a kick out clause that allows for other offers where the buyer is not going through BoA, and there fore may not have delays?
• buyer agents: If your client has chosen BoA as a lender, is it in your buyer's best interest to stay with BoA or would they be better served by a lender with less delays? Lending delays could cause a seller to switch to a back-up offer rather than agree to a lender caused extension.
• lawyers: If your fees are set by the lender and are not hourly but flat, is it in your interest to take on loans that wil take up to three times as long to close as other lenders?
• consumer: Why initiate a loan application, or even a pre-approval for that matter, with a lender who you know will have problems closing in a timely fashion?

It seems like BoA wants to get out of the home lending business. If these delays are in fact true, then in my opinion, it is not in the best interest of any party to a real estate transaction to be involved with BoA. What do you think?

If you have your own domain/trademark, this is important:

If you have a registered trademark, you may want to take steps to block your trademark from being registered by others in the new .XXX top-level domain. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) recently approved the .XXX top-level domain (tld) for the adult entertainment industry.

As a result of the new domain, "your company's registered trademarks may be reserved by a third party in the adult entertainment industry and incorporated into a domain name with the .xxx TLD, which could be used to tarnish your company's business image and erode valuable trademark rights by creating an improper association with the adult entertainment industry.

For this reason, ICM Registry, the registry operator for the .xxx TLD, is giving owners of registered trademarks the opportunity to opt out and block the registration of their marks in the .xxx TLD. Between September 7, 2011, and October 28, 2011, trademark owners can apply to reserve a domain name in the .xxx TLD, essentially removing a particular domain name from the pool of available domain names. It will only be possible to reserve or block a domain name during this period, referred to as "Sunrise B" by ICM Registry.

After October 28, 2011, trademark owners can prevent third parties from incorporating their trademarks into .xxx TLD registrations by obtaining defensive .xxx TLD registrations. However, defensive TLD registrations must be renewed and maintained, unlike the one-time opt out Sunrise B provision. ICM Registry also anticipates offering a number of post-registration rights protection mechanisms, but the specifics for these mechanisms have yet to be defined."

For more details on protecting your registered trademark under the Sunrise B provision, go to http://www.icmregistry.com/launch/sunrise-b/

As always, consult an attorney familiar with Intellectual Property matters for the best advice.

Best wishes, Heath