Ohio State University files for a trademark on "THE"

[nungesser]

@tuhu

You’re conflating the purposes of copyright, patents, and trademarks here.

I never said a single thing about patents, nor copyright. I work with trademarks every day. I know the difference, and it’s clear you’re confused about what I’m saying. But thank you!

@tuhu

90% of the instances of the letters “THE” on clothing do not reference Ohio State University, so they’re not going to get protection on the letters alone, and they shouldn’t, because as you claim, they couldn’t want to stop other people from using the letters THE on clothing, which would mean the trademark would offer no way to differentiate who was confusing consumers, the main point of trademarks.

A good publicity stunt, but there’s no trademark argument there.

Except that OSU has used “The” as part of their branding for quite a long time. As we’ve all been saying, and I think we agree, what they really need to do to make this work is to submit a visual wordmark they can really own.