Diane Sarkisian, a real estate agent in Ambler, Pennsylvania, has been named in a Federal lawsuit that accuses her of patent infringement by using a map generated from her office's MLS system.

The civil lawsuit was filed by today in Federal District Court in Philadelphia. Lawyers for the patent owner, Real Estate Alliance, Ltd. (REAL), specifically noted that real estate agents throughout the country may be infringing on the patent and subject to legal action.

The U.S. Patent (No. 5,032,989), "Real Estate Search and Location System and Method," was granted by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in 1991. In short, the patent describes a process where listings in an MLS database are displayed on a map.

All agents and brokers use a computer database called the "MLS" to find listings of properties. Software companies have built systems that take MLS listings from a localized area, and displays them on a map that can be printed out. REAL states that they "own" this process, as evidenced in the patent. Effectively, everytime an agent punches up a map with listings, they have to pay REAL a few bucks.

I spoke with the office manager at the local REMax office where Sarkisian is based, and he confirmed that the maps Sarkisian was generating are specifically from this MLS mapping feature.

As for why REAL is going after a specific agent, instead of the companies that built the software? One has to wonder.