This week, The Ohio State University put in an application to trademark the word “THE” for commercial purposes.
The THE is, of course, a reference to the THE in The Ohio State University.
The gist is that they want to stop others from selling clothing with THE emblazoned on it so that they can be the only entity to sell official THE wear.
Just as you can’t go and sell a shirt with “Ohio State Buckeyes” on it without OSU approving it and receiving compensation, they are attempting to put the same kind of restrictions on THE.
And they should!
But this isn’t just about an article of clothing, so to speak.
This is about reverence and respect for a word.
But not just any word.
This is about the.
And this isn’t just a the, it’s the THE!
And if you are a Buckeye fan, it’s your THE. It is not their THE.
Don’t let them take THE from you. Not when you are so close to having it on a shirt or a hat or perhaps a FatHead or a garage door decal or maybe a basketball backboard or perhaps a beer coozy or even a casket.
That’s what those who oppose this trademark request want. They want the. They want the bad. And they don’t want you to have it. (And by “it,” I mean “the.”)
Do the math. Literally, do THE math.
Nobody has done more for THE than Ohio State, so why shouldn’t they benefit?
Hell, most people don’t even use the word the anymore.
Instead, they use shorthand, colloquialisms, or accepted mispellings like th’, tha, duh, da, or teh.
The may as well be an endangered species. I’m surprised the hasn’t been sent to a figurative literal wildlife refuge and hunted for sport by the super rich.
Ohio State is simply trying to keep the alive and give it a good home.
You weren’t doing anything with it anyway!
(And again when I say “it,” I’m referring to “the.” It is another story all together, and for many reasons I believe Illinois Tech is way out of line with what they are trying to accomplish with their own trademark applications.)
Think about it, before Ohio State football players came along and started saying “THE Ohio State University” during introductions on Sunday and Monday Night Football, the was seen as a lowly word and more of a necessary evil than an integral part of our everyday language.
Based on many television shows that I have watched featuring characters speaking broken English, I don’t even think they use the in Europe.
Because of Ohio State, that will never happen here in America.
Ohio State gave THE value. OSU gave THE worth.
So why shouldn’t they make a few bucks off of a t-shirt or a hat or an insulated travel mug or a cellphone case or novelty underwear?
As you would expect, the University received quite a bit of backlash on social media when this news broke.
Complaints flew in from all sides.
Ohio State was shouted down like they were trying to amend the Constitution.
The University is simply trying to protect property that they value and nobody else does.
You know how cities sometimes hand over buildings to the squatters living in them and they end up improving the building and making it livable again?
This is like that, except Ohio State is simply requesting permission to squat ahead of time. Not only is their purpose righteous and fair, they are thoughtful in how they are going about it.
All they are asking for is commercial control of a word that everyone uses because they have to, not because they want to.
At least Ohio State is finally giving people a reason to want to.
So you can say what you want about Ohio State overstepping its bounds here, but always remember that it is better to be THE laughingstock than just a laughingstock.
i love Ohio St. but honestly the “THE” stuff is just stupid I’ve always thought..this seems like something the obnoxious, arrogant , pretentious scUM would care more about…it’s perfectly fine as “Ohio State”.
I thought that I had read somewhere that early in OSU history that it was known as Thee OSU not The OSU hence the saying of THEE not The
It’s never been “Thee”.
fun-fact: I recall when the osu braintrust decided to change the name of Ohio State University the The Ohio State University-as I recall it was in the early ’70’s. what made it noteworthy was that it sparked some student demonstrations and sit-ins, though peaceful (compare and contrast that to the oftentimes violent and destructive activism and protests that surrounded the Viet Nam war, the draft, etc. at around the same time period). and the protests were all about the financial idiocy of having to spend so many hundred’s of thousands of dollars to change all the campus signage, paper forms, letterings, and on and on for a reason that literally nobody could understand (recall, this was during an era where it didn’t take much to get a protest going….). to me? it seemed silly then, and it seems silly still today.
No, it’s better if somebody else is the laughingstock. OSU doesn’t need any more idiotic stuff like this sticking to them. Let other schools come off as greedy corporate football factories with too many lawyers. Looking around lately, half the students can’t write a complete sentence but everybody’s worried about somebody using the second commonest word in the language on a t-shirt. It makes OSU look like Michigan in a bad way. Please, let’s get through this preseason without the off the field non-football bull chit for once. So far it’s gone great.
Buckeye- you are right, this decision does have the stink of UM around it. Pretentious, unnecessary, absurd. Not good…
Cool I can’t wait for a license plate frame that says The Ohio State University instead of just Ohio State University.
The last sentence redeems this piece. The fine minds at The Ohio State University have not thought of bottling the air above The Ohio Stadium and selling it. If they could, they would. After all, in the words of that great teacher “it is a business decision”!
This attempt by OSU has bad optics because it IS bad optics. Specifically within an athletics context- nominally what sites like this one purport to focus on- I don’t recall referring to OSU as “The” OSU when communicating with others. What team do I like? I like Ohio State, no “The” in the quote needed. Talk about begging neutral folks to dislike a place…wow
Lighten up Francis. Essentially, despite the humorous piece that SOME of us just enjoyed (me being one of them), OSU is simply wanting to trademark THE for shirts and hats. They’re doing it because those shirts are already out there, and this is what they do when they decide someone is profiting off the university’s reputation. If they can force those people to recognize the obvious connection to OSU, then the university adds a few more dollars to their coffers. Which is their job.
Up yours, Kmax. The problem isn’t the piece, it’s thoughtless clowns like you. Keep burying your head in the sand.
Relax u nut job.
Gym Shorts- “You” (not “u”) relax, asshat.
You’re a real sweetheart. Keep taking innocuous stuff way too seriously. The rest of us will happily disregard your overreactions and/or laugh in your general direction.
Yeah, except you are neither “happy” nor “disregarding” what I wrote. You are a snide troll who got put in his place- period.