A blast from the past.  Good to remember at a time like this. 

  Hmm . . . that's an interesting piece of revistionist history.  It may have been beneath the surface a little and the lawsuit brought it out in the open, but to say that it didn't exist is not exactly accurate.  Ask Vern Alden about that one. 

OCF:  Check the dates, it is a simple documented time line, I will let facts stand on their own merit.  I will also mention that Vern Alden, as great a man as he is, was 18 years removed from this issue, I never said there was NO issues, I said real issues, at least none serious enough to bring out court action.  Ohio University filed a trademark patent on the term OHIO in the Arch form, and this triggered the lawsuit.  For years the two sides co-existed with some minor flare ups, but this was seen by both sides as a move on the others turf, and a childhood spat convened.

Monroe, you can babble all you want, once again check some facts, Oklahoma has a trademark on the interlocking OU, and has for years, many years.

oklahoma's ou logo is a slanted interlocking OU, we've never used anything like that. the logo on our baseball caps was always upright.

Honestly, I don't give enough of a sh** about this to click on those links. We are The Ohio University. Our initials are OU, or use Ohio for short.

Not true, we are The Ohio University.  The difference is whether it's used just on official documents or whether you are pretentious enough to try to insist that everyone refer to you that way.

Pretty sure you are incorrect here. Don't have time to look it up but I remember seeing the document once and thought it said "the establishment of a university at Athens, to be known as The Ohio University."

Note the quotes.

www.ohio.edu/trustees/history/upload/Act-establish...

That's why it's confusing..."The" is indeed capitalized on the diplomas...

This discussion got me wondering if the state legislature officially refers to osu as "The Ohio State University." Sure enough, there it is:

Ohio Revised Code Sec. 3335.01. The educational institution originally designated as the Ohio agricultural and mechanical college shall be known as “The Ohio State University.” The leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to agricultural and mechanical arts. [SIDE NOTE: HA! They really are cow college].

That got me thinking what they call us. It looks like it's "The Ohio University" officially:

Ohio Revised Code Sec. 3337.01(A). The body politic and corporate by the name and style of “The President and Trustees of the Ohio University” now in the university instituted and established in Athens by the name and style of “The Ohio University” shall consist of a board of trustees composed of eleven members, who shall be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the senate.

Interestingly, in the rest of the Code chapter, "the" and "university" are not capitalized. I thought that might mean something, but then I noticed it does the same thing for osu. Miami never gets their "university" capitalized, though, because Miami sucks.

The Ohio Revised Code and Ohio Administrative Code are riddled with typographical errors. Miami university should be proud.

Well you must be older than we all thought if you have seen the original   I have looked at no less than four different sources on line of copies of the document and they all read the same way, as well as wording and references on the official webpage about the history of Ohio University, and even referenced my hardback copy of the History of Ohio University which has a photo of the charter, and they all have the in lower case.  Not saying you are wrong, stating that I have yet to find any refuting fact besides the very confusing Ohio General Assembly read above.