---
title: what these guys need is... a trademark license!
date: '2008-09-17'
tags:
- misc
draft: false
legacy_url: https://lu.is/2008/09/what-these-guys-need-is-a-trademark-license/
legacy_source: wordpress
---

Most screaming case for a [community mark](http://factoryjoe.com/blog/2006/01/14/the-case-for-community-marks/) license I've seen in a while is the utterly cool [PARK(ing) Day](http://www.parkingday.org/). Basically, they've got a very cool idea (probably patentable, not copyrightable) and have registered a mark (PARK(ing) Day, protected but not under copyright.) And they've put the thing (or tried to put it) under a CC-BY-NC-SA license, which is (say it with me, kids) *a copyright license*. And hence doesn't accomplish what they want to accomplish, legally-speaking.

This isn't really their fault; as far as I know no one has creatively addressed their needs ((just as no one has creatively addressed the need of the [spec writers](http://tieguy.org/blog/2008/03/27/brief-cc-licensed-specification-rant/))). Still, frustrating to see. If only there were 30 hours in the day...