Ohio State trademarks “THE” for use on clothing
By Ryan Stano
The Ohio State Buckeyes are one of the most recognized college brands in all of college sports. There are Buckeye fans everywhere in the world. Fans of other programs will roll their eyes when they hear Buckeyes say it’s THE Ohio State University.
Well, their eyes are about to roll as far back as they possibly can now. Ohio State has won the right to trademark “THE” on clothing. This is according to trademark attorney Josh Gerben.
The Ohio State University has successfully registered a trademark for "THE."
— Josh Gerben (@JoshGerben) June 22, 2022
The registration was just issued on June 21st by the USPTO.
The application was filed back in August 2019. So why did it take 3 years to get approved?
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As he mentions, Ohio State tried to do this three years ago. They got widely mocked for trying to trademark the most used word in the English language. Yet somehow, they were able to get it approved. It was widely mocked then and will be widely mocked now.
Look, even I think this is stupid as an Ohio State fan. This just reinforces the stereotype that Buckeye fans are arrogant. Some certainly are, but the vast majority of us are not. This little stunt for a cash grab by the university doesn’t help change the optics on that.
Unfortunately, the university has done everything it can to grab cash in the last decade or so. From tearing down cherished bars so they can build luxury apartments so they can charge exorbitant amounts of money for rent to making parking near campus next to impossible without spending large amounts of cash on that too, it’s getting ridiculous.
Next. Aaron Craft is a Hall of Famer. dark
I guess there really isn’t any doubt anymore; it really is THE Ohio State University.