diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 128729045e7c09d579233ce010470041ea80d4ba..a2a6adb053654a65233085be19b78e0e43b04658 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -237,6 +237,7 @@ documents those changes that are of interest to users and admins.
 * Changes in SLURM 2.3.6
 ========================
  -- Fix DefMemPerCPU for partition definitions.
+ -- Fix to create a reservation with licenses and no nodes.
 
 * Changes in SLURM 2.3.5
 ========================
diff --git a/src/slurmctld/reservation.c b/src/slurmctld/reservation.c
index 9e012b9ae413b162343fae9ce4df42c246ac18d9..bfa0a0540ec637715b08d0c337d90abaa4615db3 100644
--- a/src/slurmctld/reservation.c
+++ b/src/slurmctld/reservation.c
@@ -1364,8 +1364,9 @@ extern int create_resv(resv_desc_msg_t *resv_desc_ptr)
 			rc = ESLURM_NODES_BUSY;
 			goto bad_parse;
 		}
-	} else if ((resv_desc_ptr->node_cnt == NULL) ||
-		   (resv_desc_ptr->node_cnt[0] == 0)){
+	} else if (((resv_desc_ptr->node_cnt == NULL)  ||
+		    (resv_desc_ptr->node_cnt[0] == 0)) &&
+		   ((resv_desc_ptr->flags & RESERVE_FLAG_LIC_ONLY) == 0)) {
 		info("Reservation request lacks node specification");
 		rc = ESLURM_INVALID_NODE_NAME;
 		goto bad_parse;