On Wednesday, Ohio State University officially received a trademark on the word “THE.”
The registration certificate Ohio State received states it can use “THE” on “clothing, namely, t-shirts, baseball caps and hats; all of the foregoing being promoted, distributed, and sold through channels customary to the field of sports and collegiate athletics.”
Ohio State tried to get the word “THE” trademarked back in 2019. It took so long for this process to get completed because clothing company Marc Jacobs also filed its own trademark application for the same word.
Eventually, Ohio State and Marc Jacobs settled their dispute. The terms of their settlement were not disclosed.
Nonetheless, the college sports world is indifferent when it comes to this news. In fact, most of the responses to this successful trademark application have been jokes about the word “THE.”
This might seem like a useless trademark application to some people, but the Buckeyes have proven time and time again they’re very defensive when it comes to protecting “THE.”
Sports fans should expect to see Ohio State apparel with “THE” written on it fairly soon.
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