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| “Today” show co-host and alumnus Matt Lauer takes a sip from a Bobcat coffee mug after a segment in November on the trade mark dispute between Ohio University and Ohio State University. |
When the camera returned to “Today” co-host Matt Lauer, BSC ’97, in the studio, Lauer claimed neutrality on the issue and then too k a long sip from an Ohio Bobcats coffee mug. “Today” is the nation’s top-rated morning talk show, and has an audience of more than 6 million.
The petition by Ohio State to cancel Ohio University’s trademark of “Ohio” was still active when Ohio University Today went to press in late March. While Ohio University has offered settlement agreements involving virtually every historical and current use noted by OSU (such as “Ohio Stadium” and “Script Ohio”), OSU maintains its opposition to the trademark. Ohi o University continues to seek a settlement.
Bolstering Ohio University’s claim to the secondary use of the state name in clear non-athletic references, library research revealed that a 1903 Ohio State Lantern student newspaper used the contemporary shorthand names of several universities — “OSU,” “Ohio,” “Miami” and “Cincinnati” — in a story about a meeting of university presidents.
In a letter to the editor in The Akron Beacon Journal in late November, Ohio University News Services Executive D irector Bryan McNulty noted, “If OSU loses this challenge, it loses little. If Ohio University loses its trademark, it loses much. Trademark royalties — a significant portion of which are derived from ‘Ohio,’ our primary trademark — produce $170,000 a year in income to the university. ... Without a valid trademark, no manufacturer is compelled to pay royalties and the university cannot defend its mark against scurrilous uses — such as a recent unauthorized and obscene treatment of Brutus Buckeye on a T-shirt, against which OSU rightfully invoked trademark law.”
