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Your answer lies in Ohio case law.
Several years ago, a case went all the way to the Ohio Supreme Court regarding open carry and the legality thereof (before the concealed carry permit law). The Ohio Supreme Court ruled that because the state constitution guarantees a right to keep and bear arms, the state may NOT completely prohibit the carrying of arms. At that time Ohio state law prohibited concealed carry. Therefore, the state Supreme Court ruled, since the state prohibited concealed carry open carry had to be legal.
With that ruling as protection, the Ohio gun rights organization began organizing open carry events around the state. The "authorities" became tired of all the frantic phone calls from the blissninnies about a man with a gun, so they caved in and enacted a concealed carry permit system.
But the court's ruling still stands. It isn't a right if you have to buy a permit to exercise it, and the concealed carry permit costs money. So open carry remains legal in Ohio by virtue of the state constitution and the Ohio Suprme Court.
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