COLUMBUS, Ohio — For many Buckeye fans, Ohio State has always had “the” in front of it, even before it was official. While the trademark makes fans excited, it could have both negative and positive effects on small businesses.

What You Need To Know

  • Depending on the business, the trademark could have both positive and negative effects
  • The Ohio State University petitioned to trademark “the” in 2019, and after a three-year-long battle, they officially have legal branding access to the three-letter word

  • The university shares “the” branded products with designer Marc Jacobs

Julie Sapp has worked at College Traditions since she was a student at Ohio State. She’s always put a “t” in front of OSU to represent "the," but she never thought it would become official.

“Now that it's a trademark, it kind of even made it a little more special. I never really thought that was a thing that you could even trademark a word,” said Sapp. “A three-letter word.”

The Ohio State University petitioned to trademark “the” in 2019. After a three-year-long battle, they officially have legal branding access to the three-letter word. This won’t hurt small businesses like College Traditions because everything has to get licensed before hanging in their store.

“It doesn’t really affect anything; we'll just be able to sell more items that say just the word 'the' or the Ohio State University,” said Sapp. 

For other small businesses like Mid-High Market, the new trademark could have some negative effects. The store is on High Street, across from the Ohio State Union. The place is packed with fans on game days. Designer Dalton Willis said the new trademark can make things tricky for some of their existing merchandise.

“We’ve avoided certain situations for about two years now, so I don’t think it’ll be that tricky as long as we stay kind of low-key with everything,” said Willis. 

He said they’ll most likely pull any merchandise that has just “the” on it, limiting their sales and products. He has consulted with the owners of the store and is unsure if they will try to go through the proper licensing channels or get rid of the merchandise altogether.

“We’ve been into it for a while. We know how tricky it already has been, so one more word, what does it really matter a ton? But it definitely has things to it,” said Willis. 

The university shares “the” branded products with designer Marc Jacobs. OSU’s licensing program generates more than $12.5 million annually which the university uses for university programs and scholarships.