{"id":3185,"date":"2025-10-16T09:49:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/osu-fights-to-block-brown-jugs-buckeye-tears-trademark-request\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T09:49:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T09:49:12","slug":"osu-fights-to-block-brown-jugs-buckeye-tears-trademark-request","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/10\/16\/osu-fights-to-block-brown-jugs-buckeye-tears-trademark-request\/","title":{"rendered":"OSU fights to block Brown Jug\u2019s \u2018Buckeye Tears\u2019 trademark request"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>In November 2024, fans of Ohio State watched as the Michigan football team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/postgame-fight-elicits-varied-reactions-from-michigan-and-ohio-state\/\">planted its flag<\/a> on the Ohio Stadium turf following a 13-10<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/football\/michigan-shuts-ohio-state-down-to-pull-off-massive-upset-13-10\/\"> victory<\/a>, marking its fourth-straight win in the long-standing rivalry. Earlier that year, Ann Arbor\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/brownjug-annarbor.com\/\">The Brown Jug<\/a> restaurant launched a new beer on tap called Buckeye Tears.<\/p>\n<p>In August 2024, the restaurant officially applied for a trademark for \u201cBuckeye Tears.\u201d This past August, OSU filed a<a href=\"https:\/\/ttabvue.uspto.gov\/ttabvue\/v?pno=91301291&amp;pty=OPP&amp;eno=1\"> notice of opposition<\/a> against the trademark request, claiming the product \u201cdilutes the distinctiveness\u201d of OSU\u2019s brand. While The Brown Jug can continue selling the beer onsite no matter the outcome of the case, by trademarking the phrase, the restaurant could potentially expand the product and distribute it to other retailers.<\/p>\n<p>The restaurant submitted an initial<a href=\"https:\/\/ttabvue.uspto.gov\/ttabvue\/v?pno=91301291&amp;pty=OPP&amp;eno=5\"> answer<\/a> to the notice Oct. 6, stating Buckeye Tears refers to the sentiment that \u201cOhio State and its supporters may on occasion act like sore losers.\u201d Both OSU\u2019s media and public relations team and The Brown Jug declined to comment on the case.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to The Michigan Daily, Law School professor Jessica Litman wrote The Brown Jug will need to convince the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.uspto.gov\/\"> United States Patent and Trademark Office<\/a> that consumers will not be confused or misled by the product in order to win the case.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cOhio State is arguing primarily that the Brown Jug\u2019s use of BUCKEYE TEARS as a trademark will confuse consumers who will erroneously believe that Ohio State licensed, sponsored, or is otherwise connected with Brown Jug\u2019s BUCKEYE TEARS products,\u201d Litman wrote. \u201cIt is also arguing that the BUCKEYE mark is a very famous mark, so that any business\u2019s use of a mark with BUCKEYE in it will damage the distinctiveness of its marks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with The Daily, LSA junior Mia Wang, philanthropy chair for<a href=\"https:\/\/www.michiganbl.org\/\"> Michigan Business Law<\/a>, said that she does not believe consumers will think OSU is associated with the product.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf consumers see Buckeye Tears as just a fun little reference to the Ohio-Michigan rivalry, they might perceive it more as a joke rather than believing that Ohio State itself is producing it or endorsing the product,\u201d Wang said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wang said since OSU doesn\u2019t exclusively own the word<a href=\"https:\/\/ohiostatebuckeyes.com\/sports\/2018\/6\/1\/what-is-a-buckeye\"> buckeye<\/a> and The Brown Jug uses the phrase without scarlet and gray colors, a block O or the school\u2019s mascot \u2014<a href=\"https:\/\/alumnimagazine.osu.edu\/story\/being-brutus-buckeye\"> Brutus Buckeye<\/a> \u2014 the restaurant has a stronger case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there are no logos or colors used, it really helps The Brown Jug\u2019s argument that there\u2019s no misleading representation,\u201d Wang said. \u201cBuckeye could literally mean a nut if you don\u2019t associate it with any Ohio State branding.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The Brown Jug\u2019s response to the notice of opposition also noted that the word buckeye has many uses, including the more than 5,700 registered Ohio businesses with \u201cbuckeye\u201d in the name, which OSU does not challenge. The restaurant claims OSU is infringing on its<a href=\"https:\/\/www.freedomforum.org\/parody-satire-first-amendment\/\"> First Amendment<\/a> rights.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe generic use of \u2018buckeye\u2019 to refer to Ohioans goes back to at least 1788,\u201d the statement read. \u201cIn its early meaning, the term \u2018buckeye\u2019 was used to convey that Ohioans as a group were \u2018untaught\u2019 and \u2018awkward.\u2019 It was not until over 100 years later that Ohio State, the leading public institution of higher learning in Ohio, thought that it should also use this word to refer to its students and commercial offerings.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Jacob Miziko, a manager at The Brown Jug, told The Daily the University\u2019s rivalry with OSU has been even more intense recently after OSU\u2019s repeated losses.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s ever really been a respectful rivalry,\u201d Miziko said. \u201cI always think it\u2019s been cutthroat. Especially with the last four years, it just seems that Ohio State is just seething to get that win \u2014 to have the epitome of dominance that they\u2019ve been so long searching for. Last year, sure, they won a national championship, but they didn\u2019t win the game that matters, and so that\u2019s something that we can still throw in their face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Wang said she thinks OSU is expending energy on this dispute because they want to set a strong legal precedent.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cFor Ohio State, this win could really show how aggressively they protect their Buckeye brand,\u201d Wang said. \u201cJust like Michigan \u2014 we protect the (block)\u00a0 \u2018M\u2019 with our lives \u2014 it\u2019ll be the same thing with Ohio State. It shows that they\u2019re not willing to step away from a fight, and that keeps their mark famous and strong, and it also sets precedent for future disputes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Daily Staff Reporter Dominic Apap can be reached at dapap@umich.edu.<\/em><\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In November 2024, fans of Ohio State watched as the Michigan football team planted its flag on the Ohio Stadium turf following a 13-10 victory, marking its fourth-straight win in the long-standing rivalry. Earlier that year, Ann Arbor\u2019s The Brown Jug restaurant launched a new beer on tap called Buckeye Tears. In August 2024, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[3276,3277,3279,1633,3278,3275,3282,3280,3281],"class_list":{"0":"post-3185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","9":"tag-brown","10":"tag-buckeye","11":"tag-fights","12":"tag-jugs","13":"tag-osu","14":"tag-request","15":"tag-tears","16":"tag-trademark"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3185"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3187,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3185\/revisions\/3187"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}