Ohio

Ohio State can’t take a ‘joke,’ Michigan bar says in response to lawsuit

Published

9 months ago

October 9, 2025

Ohio State can’t take a ‘joke,’ Michigan bar says in response to lawsuit

The owners of a bar in Michigan that serves up Buckeye Tears for $7 a pint have answered Ohio State University’s claim that their beer violates federal trademark protections.

OSU’s overreaction to a bit of good-natured ribbing just adds more Buckeye tears to the keg, they claim in papers filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Oct. 6. It’s their lawyer’s response to Ohio State’s opposition of a trademark application by the Brown Jug, a bar and restaurant near the University of Michigan’s campus in Ann Arbor.

“The Buckeye Tears mark … plays into a perception shared by Michigan fans — particularly in the wake of their football team’s four consecutive victories over Ohio State — that Ohio State and its supporters may on occasion act like sore losers,” attorneys from the law firm Fenwick & West wrote on the Brown Jug’s behalf.

“Ohio State’s very filing of the opposition validates that perception,” they wrote.

OSU put itself on record Aug. 27 against the bar’s application for a trademark on Buckeye Tears. The university said the beer would create “a false sense of connection with Ohio State” and damage the university’s “reputation and goodwill.”

Ohio State holds trademarks on the Buckeyes’ name and said it has reaped more than $145 million in royalties from it over the last decade.

The Brown Jug’s lawyers, however, said the word Buckeye is already used for more than 5,700 licensed businesses in Ohio and is a brand name on beer, wine and liquor that OSU has “apparently not seen fit to police.”

“Ohio State called its team of lawyers only when a Michigan small business sought to make a good-natured joke,” he said.

At least one of the eight Buckeyes-named products used as an example, though, is licensed by Ohio State.

OSU spokesman Ben Johnson declined to comment on the Brown Jug’s response, which included another dig at the Buckeyes.

“The generic use of ‘buckeye’ to refer to Ohioans goes back to at least 1788,” wrote the four lawyers, one of whom is a University of Michigan Law School graduate. “In its early meaning, the term ‘buckeye’ was used to convey that Ohioans as a group were ‘untaught’ and ‘awkward.’ 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.”

Bob Vitale can be reached at rvitale@dispatch.com or at @dispatchdining on the Instagram social platform.

Source link

Click to comment

Ohio

Car crashes into fitness center in Warren

Published

2 hours ago

July 7, 2026

Press Room

Car crashes into fitness center in Warren

WARREN, Ohio (WKBN) — Police are investigating after a car crashed into a popular fitness center in Warren.

Just before 10 p.m., a car drove into the Planet Fitness on Elm Road. The car has since been removed from the building.

Bystanders tell our crew on scene that two people were taken away by ambulance.

Warren’s Police Department is investigating the cause of the crash.

Alex Sorrells contributed to this report.

Source link

Ohio

Veteran Officer Among 4 Dead in Ohio Shooting

Published

12 hours ago

July 6, 2026

Press Room

Veteran Officer Among 4 Dead in Ohio Shooting

A nighttime call about a break-in in small-town Ohio ended with four people dead, including a police sergeant and a 13-year-old girl. Authorities say officers arrived around 9:30pm Sunday in Rittman, about 20 miles west of Akron, and were immediately met with gunfire, the Canton Repository reports. Sgt. Scott Ries, a 10-year veteran of the Rittman Police Department and a former Wayne County deputy sheriff, was fatally shot while responding to what officials described as a disturbance call.

Four other officers—three Medina County sheriff’s deputies and a Hinckley Police Department officer—were injured, the AP reports. Two were hospitalized in stable condition and two were treated at the scene. A Wayne County K-9, Vick, was badly injured.

The suspected shooter, 38-year-old Brandon Fazekas, died from a wound consistent with suicide, the coroner said. The Wayne County coroner identified the other victims as the suspect’s ex-partner and her daughter, WKYC reports. The coroner said 43-year-old Christine McWilliams and her 13-year-old daughter, McKinley, were both killed in what appear to be homicides. Rittman is a town of around 6,100 people on the border between Wayne and Medina counties.

The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation is leading the probe. In a statement, the city of Rittman praised Reis, 54, for his “honor and courage” and “enduring commitment to protecting others.” “Our hearts are broken with this unimaginable loss,” the city said.

Source link