Ohio State University tries to trademark “the”, you say?
Late stage educationalism!
They exist; they’re just not trademarked. I’ve seen around five students wearing them around campus.
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I got to a national conference for university honors programs. For some reason, about a dozen universities which attend this conference call themselves “THE University of Something Something!!!11!11”
It drives me up the wall. I want to stand up and protest, to tell them all that loudly proclaiming your singularity shows up your insecurity. But I don’t want to be THE jackass in the room, so I roll my eyes like everyone else (at least until it’s their turn to be THE University of Something Something).
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The patent office cited the trademark appears to be used for “merely decorative manner” and as an “ornamental feature” that doesn’t appear to function as a trademark that would differentiate the items from others.
Is this really the best argument the USPTO could come up with? Certainly they cited more, right? I mean, the last part of the sentence kinda seems like they’re leaving the door open for another attempt!
OSU actually has a design department, which should be familiar with trademark and copyright requirements, not to mention be able to crank out half a dozen suitable templates.
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Still interesting since LeBron’s trademark was rejected for being a typical phrase that is immune to trademarking, so it seems that precedent would make for an easy challenge to Taco John’s trademark
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They’re on track to lose it.
They’ve gotten flack for sending cease-and-desist letters over it, but people lose their trademarks if they can’t prove they sent those letters.
What’s interesting is that when they do lose it, it will be because someone can argue they didn’t send enough of those stupid letters to keep the phrase from staying so widespread.
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Or the one for Oh Hell It’s Ohio.
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