Is this THE stupidest decision by the US Patent & Trademark Office?
I thought this was rightly shut down years ago? Embarrassing for every part involved.
All THE parts involved!
Honestly, it makes sense to me. Its stupidity makes it unique enough to be trademarked.
There are many eccentricities in the law of trademarks that the average person is not aware of. For instance, I had a client get a trademark for the use of a certain shade of green used on forms; called trade dress.
The use of "The" as part of the school's name is only for clothing. Not totally shocked although there are many schools where "The" is a prominent part of the name.
Does this mean all those cooler poopers need to pay OSU for calling us THE team up north?
And good luck enforcing this with respect to anyone other than those selling obvious knockoffs.
thats exactly why they did it.
“THE has been a rallying cry in the Ohio State community for many years, and Buckeye fans who purchase official Ohio State gear support student scholarships, libraries and other university initiatives,” he said.
Sounds like an AI wrote this quote lol
AI's have come a long way recently. This quote can only have been from a graduate of a state university in Ohio
That's a slight to the fine graduates of Miami.
Henceforth: Miami (Not that Miami, not that state university in Ohio, yes Bo coached there, isn't sure whether to acknowledge Ben Rothlesberger)
abbr: Miami (NTMNTSUIOYBCTISWTABR)
Whether that quote is from an AI or an actual person, they definitely could have gone more all-in as regards "THE":
“THE has been a rallying cry in the THE Ohio State University community for many years, and Buckeye fans who purchase official THE Ohio State University gear support student scholarships, libraries and other THE Ohio State University initiatives,” he said.
...THE he said.
". . . and some of our more advanced graduate level students have even begun to learn to use other articles such as "A" and "AN."
How can Ohio State University trademark something that clearly belongs to THE Ohio State University?
Next thing will be MSU getting a trademark for StAEE but only for use on beat up cars.
Asinine for the USPTO to trademark the most common word in the English language.
It is the government. LOL
What does this mean for apparel featuring the U-M seal?
It means it will be way better than any "THE" shit from OSU.
If it’s not scarlet and grey, you can bet it’s OK!
It means you are the one paying for the pizza.
Go Blue!!!!
And the guy with the "The Ohio State University" shirt is delivering it!
An ancient Ohio tradition, dating back through the mists of time to 2005. (They claim it's much older but applying for patent, you presumably have to tell the truth.)
AND they probably paid some marketing firm a gazillion bucks to come up with the doofus idea.
So now, thanks to this violation of common sense AND bastardization of normal English usage, it's okay to refer to the (my emphasis) The (their emphasis) Ohio State football team.
If memory serves, the had to do that since O-State trademarked OSU and informed Ohio that they couldn’t be OSU anymore; thus, the move to tOSU. T Boone Pickens is O-State’s Dave Brandon but half as smart.
Careful. Most times I use "tOSU," comments object, apparently deciding that use reinforces rather than teases the the Ohio State nonsense.
good luck enforcing this one. michigan puts "the" on all their apparrel. osu sues for tradmark infringement with osu having to show how michigan putting "the" on a shirt financially damaged them and unfairly enriched michigan. since persons purchasing michigan apparrell are almost certainly not interested in purchasing osu apparrell and are certainly not.buying the clothing becsuse of the word "the", a suit would not yeild much for osu as they are not competing in same market segment. there would be no financial losses for osu or financial enrichment for michigan specifically because of"the".. i am 20+ years removed from anything related to intellectual property so memory is rusty to say the least.
Any suit would also invite a countersuit to cancel the mark.
The cease and desists will be pretty unintimidating.
Not a lawyer, but wouldn’t the word, the, in our seal that predates tOSU’s trademark make it really hard for them to win a suit?
I believe OSU's trademark only covers the use of the word "The" by itself. It definetely would not suddenly prevent UM from using "The University of Michigan" or any of the hundreds of other institutions with "The" as part of their name.
This is the dumbest phucking $^%(# that I've heard in a while. Even sorrier - this was the lead news story on the Columbus TV stations here in Central Ohio. Channel 10 spent a ton of time on it and everyone was grinning from ear to ear. With all of the horrible stuff going on in the world right now, this was the MAIN news here in redneck heaven
The The Ohio State administrators don't play school either, they play marketing.
As a registered patent attorney, I have to warn you that this decision isn't even in the top 100 stupidest issuances by the USPTO.
It's a limited use by OSU of a particular word in branding, and I mean UM has trademarked the letter "M" so we probably shouldn't throw too many stones.
Yeah, this is more of a funny story than an actual big deal. As you said, limited use.
I think the University of Michigan has a trademark on the word "Hail." I may be wrong there. I know Penn State has a trademark on the word "Sapphire", of all things.
One of my co-workers ~7 years ago showed up wearing a maize and blue t-shirt that just said "Hail" on it, I asked him why he was wearing clothing that was promoting destructive weather.
My wife, also a registered patent attorney, thought it was more asinine that it wasn't restricted to OSU colors.
Yeah, I saw that as well. I do wonder how they'll handle enforcement if other schools, for example, use a prominent "THE" as part of a larger branding in a school's colors. The example mark they supplied in the filing I saw was just the word "THE" on a red-and-gray shirt, and so I sort of assumed the mark's issuance would have been tied to OSU a bit tighter. So we'll see how this actually plays out.
They'll handle it like any other trademark enforcement, right? I mean, the more words you put on the apparel the less likely "THE" is going to be viewed as identifying source. Right? Trademark is always a totality of the circumstances test as to consumer identification of source and, in that sense, fundamentally commonsense. The fact is that almost everyone on this thread, when they hear "THE" in the context of sports associates that word w/ Ohio State. It identifies source. BUT, it probably only does so ALONE. It is, for example, highly unlikely that anyone would confuse the source of "THE" w/ the source of "The University of Michigan".
So, I think it's unsuprising that the mark was registered and I think it's fairly clear that it's scope is very limited, even within Class 025.
THEy really are THE worst.
I guess I'm seeing Who in Detroit and not THE Who now
I guess I'm seeing Pretty Reckless with Halestorm in Sterling Heights a few weeks from now and not THE Pretty Reckless now
This is conversation; you can still say The Who. ;-)
Okay, but can I say "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!!!!!!!!
Yes, you can say that.
You'd be crude and inconsiderate if you did, but you are legally permitted.
Well played, ROGERinRockford.
Well played!
One of my favorite all time rock bands
👍👍👍
I guess buckeye chuck is not familiar with the lyrics to "Who are You"🥴
No, not ever much of a The (conversation, so it's okay) Who. Not like my boy, GoBlueGoWings.
The Who was a bit too tame for my likings. Sorry.
Is this more for your likings?
(for the top link)
"Dear Tiffany, you've made me nauseous for the last time..." 8-D
"Burn it down and walk away"
If the second song wasn't your thing how about this one
I guess I'm seeing Who in Detroit and not THE Who now
You know who's really pissed off about this?
Well, I will still refer to the school simply as "Ohio", so no big changes for me. ;-)