Ohio State's quest for a trademark on the most common word in the English language hit a snag on Wednesday as the university received an initial refusal on their trademark application for the word "THE."
Here is the official denial, from the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The two primary issues with the conflict, as Josh Gerben of the Gerben Law Firm points out, are that the clothing company Marc Jacobs already filed an application for the word "THE" before Ohio State made the filing, and that Ohio State is not using properly using the word "THE" as a trademark.