OSU trademarks
There are hundreds of trademarks related to Ohio State University. The most-used commercially:
Designs
Block O, the Spirit Mark (O w/Ohio State), Brutus, helmet stripe, Buckeye leaf (helmet award sticker), uniform
Words
The Ohio State University, Ohio State Buckeyes, OSU, Buckeye Nation, Go Bucks
Source: OSU Trademark & Licensing Services
Your kid wants an Ohio State football jersey for Christmas, specifically a replica of one worn by All-American defensive end Joey Bosa. One problem: OSU does not sell that jersey.
Option B: Purchase a knockoff Bosa “97” jersey from an online outlet, likely based in China. But that apparel is counterfeit and not officially licensed by the university.
Technically, you could be breaking the law, said Rick Van Brimmer, director of trademark and licensing services at Ohio State University.
“I want to believe that people don’t know they’re participating in the distribution of counterfeit goods, but every time they order one they are participating in it and it is a crime,” Van Brimmer said.
Such a purchase likely won’t lead to jail time, but the selling of counterfeit jerseys is something OSU takes seriously.
The university decided this year to sell only officially licensed football jerseys with the numbers 1 – always a popular number – and 15. That number was chosen not because it is worn by star running back Ezekiel Elliott, but because it’s 2015. Next year OSU will sell jerseys with numbers 1 and 16, the number worn by quarterback J.T. Barrett. You might be able to find some leftover numbers from last year — such as the 5 that was worn by Braxton Miller most of his career — but those are in short supply.
One reason why there are fewer options for shoppers is the years-long Ed O’Bannon case, an ongoing lawsuit brought against the NCAA by a former UCLA basketball star challenging the right of colleges to make money off an athlete’s likeness.
“We just decided that with everything that’s going on related to the commercialization of players and the O’Bannon case, and what was the right thing philosophically, we made a choice,” Van Brimmer said. “I don’t think it was the most popular thing with our fans, but it was the right thing to do.”
Retailers who sell licensed OSU products are feeling the effects of that decision.
“We could’ve sold a thousand Bosa jerseys, and you have to explain it to everyone because they’re furious,” said one employee of an area store that sells Ohio State apparel.
‘Whack-a-mole’
Van Brimmer said it’s not uncommon for Ohio State to ask fans wearing counterfeit jerseys where they bought them.
“You can tap them on the shoulder at a game and they may not care,” he said. “But Joey Bosa is not being compensated for the use of his name. There’s a lot of people being cheated in that kind of commerce.
“If you see a Bosa 97 or an Elliott 15, that is not an authentic. It is not authorized and it is counterfeit.”
Ohio State monitors eBay and other websites “every day” to try to control the sale of non-licensed apparel, Van Brimmer said, and it uses Google and eBay fraud divisions to shut down counterfeit sites.
“We describe it as a huge game of whack-a-mole,” he said. “We can shut you down one day and you can be right back up the next day with a different URL and seller name. There are certain vendors we’re chasing constantly. They primarily come from Asia. Sometimes we can pinpoint it, but it isn’t as easy as going down to the prosecutor’s office in downtown Columbus and saying we have a counterfeiter set up on Broad and High, can we work together to get them?”
The Department of Justice too takes the issue seriously. In 2012, it seized more than $2.4 million in proceeds from the distribution of counterfeit sports apparel and jerseys. At the time, it had seized 761 domain names of websites used in the sales and distribution of fake goods.
Earlier this year, federal officials announced the seizure of counterfeit National Football League items worth more than $19.5 million.
“Counterfeiting is not a game,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Sarah Saldana. “It is most certainly not a victimless crime either. Whether it’s the child in Southeast Asia working in deplorable conditions, or local stores going out of business, intellectual property is a very real crime with very real victims.”
Cheap options
Overseas online sites are popular for two reasons: selection and price. They offer a wide variety of jerseys that are sold for a fraction of what an officially licensed jersey costs at Ohio Stadium or on the OSU website.
For example, a number 15 “Limited” Nike jersey with no name on the back goes for $135 at ohiostatebuckeyes.com. On jerseychinashop.com, an array on Ohio State jerseys are being sold for $18.
“When you’re buying the jersey, you’re paying for the license that the company has with the NCAA or the NFL. That’s why it costs so much,” said Ryan Mackman, a jersey expert and contributor to the website Bacon Sports.
“The cost of everything in sports is going up and that’s why you’re seeing all these counterfeit jerseys,” Mackman said. “People don’t want to spend a lot of money and the guys in China can Google ‘Ohio State Buckeyes’ and there you go.
“They try to recreate that and they’ve come pretty darn close.”
Van Brimmer said it used to be easier to track down counterfeit goods.
“They used to come into the country in a container and they would come through a port of call where there was a customs agent, and if they had suspicions they would open that container,” he said. “If they saw Ohio State jerseys with somebody’s name on them I would get a phone call. You would go ‘nope, we don’t do names.’
“Now people go to these sites and order it and it’s from them to you. That makes it very difficult for us to intercept.”
Van Brimmer would prefer that such transactions stay local.
“The thing I find interesting is that the fans who think the players should be paid are also the ones buying the jerseys that the player doesn’t get anything for, the university doesn’t get anything for, the guy down the street who sells legitimate jerseys doesn’t get anything for, and no sales taxes are paid,” he said. ‘You don’t know where it comes from.”
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