Ohio State Trying to Trademark the Word ‘The’

Ohio State is trying to own the word 'the' and Michigan's response is hilarious.

Ohio State University has filed a trademark application for the rights to the word 'THE,' so that they can capitalize on everyone saying "THE Ohio State University."  This is something Ohio State has been pushing for a long time according to NBC News,

For years, the university's demand that it be called "THE Ohio State University" has rankled sports fans and journalists, who've called it "pompous and stupid," "ridiculous" and "arrogant."

The University of Michigan decided to mock Ohio State on twitter with this new parody logo:

NBC News references a tweet from Josh Gerben, founder of the Gerben Law Firm, regarding how unlikely it would be for this trademark to be approved,

Gerben predicted on Tuesday that Ohio State was "likely to receive an initial refusal of the application."

For a trademark to be registered for a brand of clothing, the trademark "must be used in a trademarked fashion," he said on Twitter. "In other words, it has to be used on tagging or labeling for the products.

Common words can be trademarked.  However, Ohio State has to prove the distinctive usage outside the basis or traditional meaning of the word "the."  Good luck with that THE Buckeyes.