Standard Character Claims don’t have design or styling considerations, so, no, they’re not applying for it to be “by itself”.
Again you’re arguing for the application they could have made, not for the one they actually did.
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Sort of. I know it’s super broad and badly worded (and, as folks have pointed out, is probably meant as a stunt to draw attention to this marketing idea) but the USPTO application is specifically for the word THE as the graphic on clothing – with no font/colors/graphic specified. So the word ‘the’ as part of a sentence wouldn’t be affected. Just other people trying to sell shirts with a big THE on them all by itself. Which is why Cory’s headline is extremely misleading.
I don’t think that’s correct. In the application, you need to specify what the trademark is for, i.e., what it consists of and what will be appearing on the merchandise. Here’s what they specify as the literal elements of the mark:
In other words, this is a trademark for a big (or small, or tiny) THE with nothing else.
Nowhere is that specified in the application, and while IANAL, I have some training in Trademarks for my profession. That is not how Trademarks work. If I trademark a word like “Awesome” as it applies to fishing and outdoors products, for a fishing rod that has “AWESOME” on the handle; and if someone introduces a product called, “THIS FLY LINE IS AWESOME” then they are violating my trademark.
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The “without claim to any particular” doesn’t mean “We’re only claiming a certain style”. It means they are asserting a right to all possible styles, known or unknown at this time, within the area they’re claiming.
I’m sure OSU is only thinking of this year’s t-shirt sales, but trademarks are more serious and are meant to settle a lifetime of trade distinctiveness disputes.
A Standard Character Claim is not a Styled Mark claim, it’s just not.
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maybe if they had a good law school these things wouldn’t happen 
i am not a lawyer* but having redeemed many coupons and successfully argued two TOTALLY UNFAIR and OUTRAGEOUS traffic tickets, I feel totally confident I can comment on the matter at hand with ample wit and wisdom
*or maybe I lie on the internet ~! nothing i say should be followed by qanyone~
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And what hasn’t been said yet, is that trademarks invalidate when they’re not defended and there’s no attempt to maintain trade distinctiveness.
Someone might reasonably believe that OSU isn’t planning on suing all the other people with prominent THEs, but if they didn’t, the trademark would be lost faster than it took to apply for it.
For this stupid application, they have to prove THE wasn’t a generic element of other people’s pre-existing branding, and that consumers, seeing a “the” are most likely to think of OSU instead of any other producer of clothing, including Ralph Lauren who have the same application, doomed for the same reason.
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I think what we can all agree on is that the application is so broadly worded that it’s open to way too much interpretation (since we have lots of them on this thread from people who do this stuff for a living). After the media kerfluffle dies down I’m sure they’ll get a designer to do an actual THE wordmark they can really lay claim to.
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