Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: Apartment Sharing Developer attempts to co-opt cohousing Name

[Dick Margulis (dick]

On 11/30/2017 9:59 AM, Fred-List manager wrote:
> I am respectfully asking Charles Durrett and the cohousing community
> to take control of the name ( cohousing ) and stop developers who are
> usurping its name and meaning.

That ship has sailed, basically. I don't think that, at this late date, 
the word cohousing can be trademarked or otherwise protected. However, 
there are models that other industries have adopted that we could 
brainstorm around. Here are three I can think of:

1. Realtor is a made-up word that is a registered trademark. The generic 
term is real estate agent, not all of whom can say they are a Realtor.

2. USDA Certified Organic, with the power of federal government behind 
it, has supplanted the unregulated use of "organically grown."

3. Association seals (in general--and I think this might be the easiest 
to implement in our case): An entity qualifies for membership in an 
association based on clear criteria, joins an association and pays dues, 
and by virtue of that is allowed to display a seal or badge. You see 
this all over the place, and some seals don't mean a lot (because all 
they care about is that your check clears). But for organizations that 
are serious about their purpose, this seems to work pretty well.

Now that I think about it, this can kill two birds with one stone 
(figure of speech--no birds will be harmed). It can help with the Coho 
USA budget at the same time it addresses the issue of poseurs.

Dick Margulis
Rocky Corner cohousing
Bethany CT
(closing imminently on our construction financing)