On the opposite end of the spectrum from highly distinct names are highly diluted words and terms. A word is highly diluted if its use is so common that the word no longer holds any distinctiveness. For example, the word “General” is common and there are many corporate names that contain the word “General”. It would be difficult to argue that the word by itself holds any distinctiveness. The public is unlikely to confuse goods and services offered by “General Baking Inc.” with those offered by “General Electric” or “General Motors”.
However, a proposed corporate name might still be rejected if it is too similar to another corporate name that contains the same diluted word. For example, “General Electricity Inc.” will probably be rejected, because it is likely to cause confusion with “General Electric”.