The Day America Privatized Grammar
In August 2021, the United States Patent and Trademark Office did something that made trademark lawyers across the country question their understanding of intellectual property law. They approved Ohio State University's application to trademark the word "The."
Photo: Ohio State University, via wallpapers.com
Not "The Ohio State University." Not "The Buckeyes." Just "The."
The most frequently used word in the English language now belongs to a public university in Columbus, Ohio.
Photo: Columbus, Ohio, via dynamic-media-cdn.tripadvisor.com
The Application That Should Have Been Laughed Out of Court
Ohio State's trademark application for "The" seemed like the kind of filing that would get immediately rejected with a form letter explaining basic principles of language ownership. You can't trademark common words that everyone uses in everyday speech.
Except, apparently, you can.
The university filed the application in 2019, arguing that "The" had become distinctively associated with their brand through decades of marketing and merchandising. They pointed to clothing, merchandise, and promotional materials where "THE" appeared prominently as part of their identity.
Trademark examiners initially rejected the application, citing the obvious problem: "The" is an article used billions of times daily by English speakers. But Ohio State persisted, arguing that in the context of university merchandise and apparel, "THE" had acquired what lawyers call "secondary meaning" — a specific association with their institution.
The Legal Loophole That Broke Language
Here's where trademark law gets weird. Ohio State didn't claim ownership of "the" in all contexts — just in specific commercial categories like clothing, marketing materials, and promotional merchandise.
In theory, this means you can still use "the" in normal conversation without paying royalties to Ohio State. You can write "the cat" or "the weather" without legal consequences. But if you want to sell a t-shirt with "THE" prominently displayed in the same style as Ohio State's merchandise, you might have a problem.
The distinction sounds reasonable until you realize how impossible it is to enforce. How do you determine when "the" is being used as a trademark versus normal grammar? What happens when other organizations reference "The Ohio State University" in their own materials?
Trademark attorneys started asking questions that had never needed answers before: Can a university own a piece of grammar? What's the legal difference between "the" and "THE"? Does font size matter in trademark infringement?
The Confusion That Followed
After the trademark was approved, businesses and organizations began reaching out to lawyers with genuinely bizarre questions. Could they still use "The" in their company names? Did referencing "The Ohio State University" in news articles require permission? What about merchandise that happened to include the word "the" in large letters?
Ohio State tried to clarify that they weren't planning to sue people for normal use of the word. They just wanted to protect their specific branding in merchandise and promotional materials. But the legal precedent was already set: someone in America officially owned "The."
Other universities started wondering if they could trademark common words associated with their brands. Could Harvard trademark "University"? Could Stanford claim "Cardinal"? The trademark office suddenly faced a flood of applications for everyday words.
The Merchandise Empire Built on Grammar
Ohio State's motivation for trademarking "The" became clearer when you looked at their merchandise sales. The university sells millions of dollars worth of apparel featuring "THE" in large letters. T-shirts, hoodies, hats — all prominently displaying the word that most people learned before they could tie their shoes.
By owning the trademark, Ohio State could prevent competitors from selling similar merchandise that might confuse consumers. No more knockoff "THE" shirts that could be mistaken for official university gear.
It was actually a clever business move disguised as a linguistic absurdity. Ohio State turned their branding quirk into legal protection for a significant revenue stream.
The Academic Institution That Owns Words
The irony wasn't lost on language professors across the country. A university — an institution dedicated to education and the free exchange of ideas — now owned a piece of the English language for commercial purposes.
Linguists pointed out that "the" predates Ohio State University by about 800 years. The word evolved from Old English and has been in continuous use since before America existed. Now it belonged to a football team.
English departments at other universities began joking about which words they might trademark next. Could Yale claim "University"? Could Berkeley own "California"? The possibilities were both endless and ridiculous.
The Legal Precedent Nobody Wanted
Trademark lawyers are still arguing about what Ohio State's "The" trademark actually means for intellectual property law. The case created a precedent that common words can be trademarked in specific contexts, but nobody's quite sure where the boundaries are.
Legal experts worry about the slippery slope. If "The" can be trademarked, what about "A" or "An"? Could someone eventually own enough articles and prepositions to make normal business communication legally complicated?
Ohio State insists they're not trying to control language — just protect their brand. But they've opened a legal door that other organizations are definitely considering walking through.
The Word That Became Corporate Property
Today, somewhere in a government database, "The" is listed as intellectual property owned by Ohio State University. The word that appears in this sentence 23 times is now a registered trademark in specific commercial categories.
It's a reminder that in America's legal system, almost anything can become someone's property if you file the right paperwork and make the right arguments. Even words that have belonged to everyone for centuries can suddenly belong to someone specific.
The next time you see "THE" on a piece of Ohio State merchandise, remember: you're looking at one of the few instances where a university successfully convinced the federal government to let them own a piece of grammar.
Somewhere in Columbus, Ohio, there's a legal department that can honestly say they own one of the most important words in the English language. And somewhere in Washington, D.C., there's a trademark office that's probably still wondering how that happened.
Photo: Washington, D.C., via jooinn.com
