The Increasingly Poor Decisions of uSOwED <| sep |> Ayyy ! I like you , bet kita kay Fried . Pwede . <| sep |> If you think you ' re out of your depth , contact a trademark lawyer . In your example case , base is a widely used dictionary word . Generally speaking you can not trademark a dictionary word . You can trademark Base Clothing as one complete term , but neither base or clothing could be trademarked individually . So you can use the word Base in this case , but you could not make Base Clothing Today . There are exceptions , mainly trademarks are there to prevent confusion , so while Base Clothing Today might be confusing it could be a separate brand to Base Clothing , you MAY key word MAY get away with The International Base Clothing Store . A lot also depends on if the trademark owner enforces their trademark , generally speaking they must take reasonable action against all infringements . Base Clothing could not let Base Clothing Today slide but take The Base Clothing to court and sue for millions . If we take another example , such as Base LTD , Base Clothing is not likely to win any case . However , you also wouldn ' t get a trademark for Base LTD as LTD is just an extension . The company name would be Base which you won ' t get a trademark for . Trademarks also go by category , you could have extremely similar names if say Base Co sold cars and Base FC sold funnel cakes . Neither one would be infringing on the others trademark because again , trademarks are there mostly for confusion . Realistically since you intend to use a term that has existing users and trademarks , you need to contact a legal professional .