What "The"?

[billisonboard]

The Ohio State University is attempting to trademark the word "the," according to an application with the US Patent and Trademark Office. link

.I guess calling yourself "The" is a step up from being called "Buckeyes".

[Tennesseer]

The Who might have something to say about this.

[toomuchreality]

After this, every word will have some kind of restriction on using it. It will become illegal to speak or write. Duh.

Come to think of it, there are some people for which this is a great idea!
🙄


Tenn- I haven't given it a lot of thought, but you're right. The Who is a great example.
Back in the 70's I had some record albums by The Guess Who. It was really confusing to me when I heard people talking about The Who. hehehe

[Tiny]

And if you are younger and punk.... The The might have an issue too. 😊

[Chocolate Lover]

All of the "The" universities are going to have something to say about it too. 

[billisonboard]

Aug 14, 2019 13:17:33 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

All of the "The" universities are going to have something to say about it too. 

At least out our way The Evergreen State University has a great mascot already so they won't care. I mean, how can you improve on being the Geoducks.

[Chocolate Lover]

Aug 14, 2019 13:35:59 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Aug 14, 2019 13:17:33 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

All of the "The" universities are going to have something to say about it too. 

At least out our way The Evergreen State University has a great mascot already so they won't care. I mean, how can you improve on being the Geoducks.

I just had to google them. The fight song lyrics are giving me a good laugh. 



www.evergreen.edu/geoduck

[Artemis Windsong]

From what I remember, commonly used terms like Kleenex cannot be trademarked.  The would fall under that use.

[thyme4change]

Kleenex is still a trademarked brand name. No other brand can call their product a kleenex - they all use the word tissue when advertising and packaging their product. It is the general public that uses them interchangeably.

But, you are correct that common words cannot be trademarked. Phone is not a word that be trademarked. The word lettuce cannot be trademarked, etc.

[billisonboard]

Damn, I put this on Everything Else so it wouldn't get all serious. 

Come on people, we should be making fun of Ohio State for trying to make themselves "The". It is as bad as as Miami calling itself "The U". Totally over inflated egos. 

[Chocolate Lover]

I'm still busy laughing at the Geoduck and the pictures of how the mascot has looked through the years. 


Can Ohio State just call themselves THE Tuba Dots since they seem to get all excited over the tuba dotting the "i" when the band spells it out? It makes as much sense.  

[NoNamePerson]

Aug 14, 2019 14:40:57 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Damn, I put this on Everything Else so it wouldn't get all serious. 

Come on people, we should be making fun of Ohio State for trying to make themselves "The". It is as bad as as Miami calling itself "The U". Totally over inflated egos. 

You should have put it on politics or current affairs for funny and light. They would just jump on it post hast with witty reprotoir- is that how it's spelled or used correctly  

But the geoduck was a nice touch! I joined Chocolate Lover on the Google bandwagon. Interesting! 

[weltschmerz]

You're all going to have to learn to speak Russian.  The word "the" doesn't exist in Russian.

[Tennesseer]

The infamous geoduck clam:

[tallguy]

Aug 14, 2019 16:41:29 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Aug 14, 2019 14:40:57 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Damn, I put this on Everything Else so it wouldn't get all serious. 

Come on people, we should be making fun of Ohio State for trying to make themselves "The". It is as bad as as Miami calling itself "The U". Totally over inflated egos. 

You should have put it on politics or current affairs for funny and light. They would just jump on it post hast with witty reprotoir- is that how it's spelled or used correctly  

But the geoduck was a nice touch! I joined Chocolate Lover on the Google bandwagon. Interesting! 

Not sure where you were going with that.  "Repertoire" is a perfectly good word, but doesn't mean anything that would apply here.  "Repartee" maybe?  

But to add to the actual discussion:  Yes, this whole idea is ridiculous.  Their athletes always sound foolish when they say, "THE Ohio State University."  It was nice that OSU got trolled by Ohio University, which was actually the first university in Ohio.    

[NastyWoman]

Aug 14, 2019 14:55:36 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

I'm still busy laughing at the Geoduck and the pictures of how the mascot has looked through the years. 


Can Ohio State just call themselves THE Tuba Dots since they seem to get all excited over the tuba dotting the "i" when the band spells it out? It makes as much sense.  

But, but, but... then they would no longer have an "i" to dot. What a sad demise of a tradition that would be

[NoNamePerson]

Aug 14, 2019 17:56:32 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Aug 14, 2019 16:41:29 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

You should have put it on politics or current affairs for funny and light. They would just jump on it post hast with witty reprotoir- is that how it's spelled or used correctly  

But the geoduck was a nice touch! I joined Chocolate Lover on the Google bandwagon. Interesting! 

Not sure where you were going with that.  "Repertoire" is a perfectly good word, but doesn't mean anything that would apply here.  "Repartee" maybe?  

But to add to the actual discussion:  Yes, this whole idea is ridiculous.  Their athletes always sound foolish when they say, "THE Ohio State University."  It was nice that OSU got trolled by Ohio University, which was actually the first university in Ohio.    

You are correct. I knew when I used the word something seemed off but to lazy to rethink so just knew someone would help me out. TY.   I blame it on old age! Heck, I can blame every thing on old age.  

[wyouser]

Aug 14, 2019 16:50:39 GMT -5 weltschmerz said:

You're all going to have to learn to speak Russian.  The word "the" doesn't exist in Russian.

"Da"

[wyouser]

See, the Continental Congress screwed up. They chose English over German by just one vote. If they had gone the other way we would have had THREE (3) choices...der....die....or das......wait, throw in cases:  accusative, dative and possessive and the number would shot up to 12!! What were they thinking?

[dannylion]

Aug 15, 2019 6:42:24 GMT -5 wyouser said:

See, the Continental Congress screwed up. They chose English over German by just one vote. If they had gone the other way we would have had THREE (3) choices...der....die....or das......wait, throw in cases:  accusative, dative and possessive and the number would shot up to 12!! What were they thinking?

But if everyone learned Russian, we'd have nominative, locative, accusative, genitive, dative, and instrumental cases (regular and irregular, plus singular and plural, and the same 3 genders as German, just without the definite article), plus a whole new alphabet to learn.  More fun for all!  

[dannylion]

Aug 14, 2019 18:48:16 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Aug 14, 2019 17:56:32 GMT -5 tallguy said:

Not sure where you were going with that.  "Repertoire" is a perfectly good word, but doesn't mean anything that would apply here.  "Repartee" maybe?  

But to add to the actual discussion:  Yes, this whole idea is ridiculous.  Their athletes always sound foolish when they say, "THE Ohio State University."  It was nice that OSU got trolled by Ohio University, which was actually the first university in Ohio.    

You are correct. I knew when I used the word something seemed off but to lazy to rethink so just knew someone would help me out. TY.   I blame it on old age! Heck, I can blame every thing on old age.  

Nevermind.  Totally missed that tallguy figured it out, even though it was right there in his comment, just right there for all to see.  I'd blame old age, but in my case it's probably just stupidity.  

[Chocolate Lover]

Aug 14, 2019 16:41:29 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

Aug 14, 2019 14:40:57 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

Damn, I put this on Everything Else so it wouldn't get all serious. 

Come on people, we should be making fun of Ohio State for trying to make themselves "The". It is as bad as as Miami calling itself "The U". Totally over inflated egos. 

You should have put it on politics or current affairs for funny and light. They would just jump on it post hast with witty reprotoir- is that how it's spelled or used correctly  

But the geoduck was a nice touch! I joined Chocolate Lover on the Google bandwagon. Interesting! 

Did you happen to see the slideshow of current and past mascot versions? 

[tallguy]

Aug 14, 2019 14:07:16 GMT -5 Chocolate Lover said:

Aug 14, 2019 13:35:59 GMT -5 billisonboard said:

At least out our way The Evergreen State University has a great mascot already so they won't care. I mean, how can you improve on being the Geoducks.

I just had to google them. The fight song lyrics are giving me a good laugh. 



www.evergreen.edu/geoduck

UC Santa Cruz has the Banana Slugs.  It was unofficial for years.  When the school had to come up with an official nickname, the chancellor chose "Sea Lions."  Students didn't go for it, however, and after a few years a vote went overwhelmingly for Banana Slugs.  

[saveinla]

Michigan trolled Ohio - 

/photo/1

[wvugurl26]

This has been circulated around my office for discussion at this afternoon's event. We've got 1 die hard Ohio state fan and a bunch of fans of their rivals.

[NoNamePerson]

Aug 15, 2019 10:49:58 GMT -5 dannylion said:

Aug 14, 2019 18:48:16 GMT -5 NoNamePerson said:

You are correct. I knew when I used the word something seemed off but to lazy to rethink so just knew someone would help me out. TY.   I blame it on old age! Heck, I can blame every thing on old age.  

Nevermind.  Totally missed that tallguy figured it out, even though it was right there in his comment, just right there for all to see.  I'd blame old age, but in my case it's probably just stupidity.  

I could probably blame it on both but I picked just one