Likelihood of Confusion?*

Is this a case of trademark confusion? You be the judge.

Exhibit A: a worldwide chain of fitness centers.

There's a Gold's Gym on Grand Avenue here in Oakland, just a couple of miles from my house.

And less than a mile from Gold's Gym, on Broadway and 25th, we find Exhibit B:

Let's take a closer look, shall we?

I think the artist had trouble drawing hands.

God's Gym opened in 1990; its owner, Gary O. Shields, Sr., was a former bodybuilding champion. "When I embraced faith, it changed my life," he told Oakland blogger Kerry Seed in 2007. His rules for God's Gym include no flirting, no dating, and no cursing.

If Gold's Gym feels threatened or infringed-upon by God's Gym, I haven't heard about it. Maybe the Gold's Gym owners are skittish about taking the Supreme Being to court.

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* Not to be confused with Likelihood of Confusion, a fine blog about trademark law.

Comments

[Mark Gunnion]

If they give him any flack, he can just paint over the "d" with an "S", and say it's his initials. Using your own legal name is a defense against trademark infringement, isn't it? Can't a person named McDonald open a McDonald's restaurant? Maybe not! As I sometimes tell my clients, "I'm not a lawyer."

Maybe that bodybuilder is about to take a nice tray of hot cookies out of the oven, and he has his oven mitts on.

[Jessica]

I would say the passage of time since Mr. Shields opened his place strongly suggests that Gold's Gym isn't too troubled by God's Gym. I, however, am profoundly troubled by the funnels the God's Gym icon is wearing.

[Rawley]

What in God's name happened to that poor fellow's hands?! Divine punishment for groping in the showers? Is this a cautionary image?

[Nick]

Maybe the triangles on his hands came off of the G's in "Gold's Gym" ?