July 10, 2007.
Today, the International Association of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc. and the
National Association of Home Inspectors, Inc. have entered into an agreement which
resolves many of the disputes between the two organizations. The agreement, which
included a mutual release, comes after a 14 month long lawsuit and counter suit
which are now both dismissed. The agreement was dictated verbally by both parties
to a court reporter today, July 10, 2007 and approved by the Board of Directors
of both organizations.
Some of the pertinent parts of the agreement are as follows:
Both parties desire to increase the distinction between their organizations so
as to lessen the chance of inspectors and the public confusing the two organizations
with each other. In an effort to...
- put more distance between the organizations,
- more closely represent InterNACHI's increasing international role in the inspection
industry
- accommodate InterNACHI's own desire to minimize the word "national" within its
own name,
- yet maintain InterNACHI's equity in its acronym "InterNACHI" which has a certain
amount of fame associated with the acronym "InterNACHI"...
InterNACHI voluntarily agreed to add the letters "inter" to its existing InterNACHI
house logo which currently includes the letter C, a chimney and a check mark.
Although no specific requirements for how these letters are to be added to InterNACHI's
logo exist within the agreement, InterNACHI is planning to add the letters vertically
along side the left side of the letter "N" in the existing logo in small typeset.
Furthermore, despite the agreement not requiring any other change, InterNACHI
is planning on voluntarily increasing the size of the check mark in its logo,
a feature not found at all in NAHI's logo. During the construction of the agreement
the parties acknowledged that this would likely take 2 years to fully accomplish.
Nick Gromicko, InterNACHI's Founder, who last year took over legal control of
a third association, the InterInternational Association of Certified Home Inspectors,
Inc., agreed to procure any necessary permission needed from that third association on
behalf of InterNACHI.
InterNACHI will retain its full and original corporate name "National Association
of Certified Home Inspectors, Inc".
Both parties have agreed to permit each other to retain their respective site's
domain names.
Both parties have agreed to remove disparaging pages from their respective websites
including NAHI's article mentioning Nick Gromicko from NAHI's website and any
InterNACHI webpage containing a reference to NAHI that NAHI deems disparaging
from InterNACHI's website, but not from InterNACHI's message board.
Both parties have agreed not to disparage each other in the future. This agreement
only applies to Nick Gromicko, InterNACHI's paid employees, NAHI's paid employees
and all Harrington Company employees such as Mallory Anderson, NAHI's Executive
Director. The non-disparage clause does not apply to individual members of either
organization or unpaid volunteers at InterNACHI.
InterNACHI's message board being uncensored and un-moderated was an issue of
contention for NAHI, however under this agreement the parties agreed that InterNACHI's
message board would remain a free speech message board, free of censorship and
moderators and that InterNACHI would have no duty to delete anything from its
message board.
InterNACHI's use of the word "certified" was an issue of contention for NAHI,
however under this agreement the parties agreed that InterNACHI will continue
its use of the word "certified."
Furthermore, under this agreement NAHI does not object to InterNACHI's use of
any phrase or tagline that does not use the words "national association of home
inspectors" in that exact order. So phrases and taglines such as "An association
of certified home inspectors" or "An international association that certifies
inspectors" would suffer no objection from NAHI.
Nick Gromicko agreed that, from this announcement forth, he will not refer to NAHI
by exact name on InterNACHI.org but is free to refer to NAHI other than by exact
name such as "that association out of Minneapolis" on InterNACHI.org
InterNACHI agreed not to use "Certified Real Estate Inspector."
NAHI agreed to withdrawl its objection to InterNACHI's use of "Certified Residential
Inspector" and allow InterNACHI exclusive use of the mark.
NAHI agreed to withdraw its objection with the US Patent and Trademark Office
if InterNACHI amends its logo mark as agreed.
NAHI agreed not to object to registration of InterNACHI's new logo mark at any
level of government be it local, state, federal or international.
NAHI agreed, that if needed, it will provide a letter to any government office
including the US Patent and Trademark office stating that it has no objection
to InterNACHI's new logo.
The parties mutually agreed not to include each others names in their site's
metatags or hidden text.
The parties mutually agreed not mine each other's sites for member's email addresses.
InterNACHI agreed to remove NAHI members who are not InterNACHI members from
its databases if given that information.
The parties mutually agreed to dismiss their respective lawsuits.
The parties mutually agreed to pay for their own legal fees and costs.
The parties mutually agreed that no money is to be paid to either party by either
party.
NAHI agreed to release Nick Gromicko of all claims personally.
NAHI specifically agreed that this agreement would offer no protection to its
Pennsylvanial NAHI members, its Pennsylvania NAHI Chapters, or itself with regard
to InterNACHI's pending lawsuits regarding the recent alledged defamation in Pennsylvania
and that InterNACHI is free to file suit against any and/or all of those NAHI parties.
Related announcements:
- InterNACHI was very well represented in this matter by Mark Cohen of the law
firm of Cohen and Horner, LLP, by intellectual property attorney Barbara Mandell
of Dykema Gossett, PLLC, and by trademark expert Theresa Pierson.
- InterNACHI is pleased to announce that Mark Cohen has been promoted and is now our
General Counsel. Congrats Mark!
- Nick Gromicko was quoted as saying "International is bigger than national, and
certified is better than not. We became bigger and better without changing or
harming our InterNACHI brand."
Also:
They wanted us to change our name by dropping the "C"... they lost.
They wanted us to stop certifying inspectors... they lost.
They wanted us to stop saying InterNACHI members are the best... they lost.
They wanted us to stop using the house in our logo... they lost.
They wanted us to end use of our InterNACHI brand... they lost.
They wanted us to change our nachi.org domain name... they lost.
They wanted us to stop using "Certified Residential Inspector" ... they lost.
They wanted us to moderate our message board... they lost.
They wanted us to pay their legal fees... they lost.
We wanted to demonstrate that although they accused us of improper metatag use,
they themselves had "American Society of Home Inspectors" in their own metags...
we succeeded.
We wanted them to admit under oath that they rely only and solely on the honor
and truthfulness of their applicants when approving memberships in their association...
we succeeded.
We wanted any change to preserve our InterNACHI brand... we succeeded.
We wanted any change in name to make us bigger not smaller... we succeeded.
We wanted to keep our message board free speech... we succeeded.
We wanted no protection for their PA members from the suits we are filing against
them... we succeeded.
We wanted to keep our official corporate name... we succeeded.
We wanted to keep our nachi.org domain name... we succeeded.
We wanted them to agree not to contest our trademark application... we succeeded.
We wanted no limit on how small in size we make "inter"... we succeeded.
We wanted to keep use of our "Certified Residential Inspector" ... we succeeded.
We wanted to keep our house logo with the 3 "C"s (chimney, checkmark and certified)...
we succeeded.
They claimed 4 million in damages... we didn't pay them a penny.
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