hi cjbay,
Just ask your question in the legal thread and listen to some comments of our really "TM seasoned", fellow NP member DNQuest and he might enlighten you about that.....it is far more complicated, believe me(just for example LG came out with a cellphone named "chocolate" and they have a TM on it)
Or think about Apple...and other big wigs....it comes all down to usage, but it is possible to TM a generic....
Just my 2 cents....
Cheers
Frank