Q: If a company called "Example Fitness, LLC" exists and "Example" is trademarked, can I call my company "Example Gym?" Thx
A:
In your example, the words "fitness" and "gym" are merely descriptive of the services provides. As such, that portion of your example marks would generally NOT be part of the protected elements. In fact, usually the trademark examiner will ask that the applicant disclaim any rights to such descriptive portions of the overall mark except when used as part of the overall mark. So, in most cases, the "example" portion of the mark would be the only part that is really protected, and therefore the most important part to analyze.
So, then moving on to the analysis, the question is whether or not there is a reasonable likelihood of confusion between the two names. Do you think that a consumer who saw "Example Fitness" and "Example Gym" might be confused that the two operations were related? If so, then there would be a likely problem.
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