Thank you! IMHO all the flap about the trademark is pretty much of a "Much Ado About Nothing".
Getting a trademark is pretty routine: you just have to pay attention to the right details: that no one else is using a very similar thing for a similar purpose, that it isn't too close to anyone else;s etc. (and, of course you have to make sure that they don't have any negative connotations (the Chevy Nova had VERY poor sales in South America : would YOU buy a car named "won't go"?) The reason that Esso became Exxon was that "esso" meant something unspeakably foul and offensive in Arabic (NOT a language you want to be offensive in if you're an oil company!).
But the BIG thing about trademarks is this: there are almost infinite possibilities: if you "lose" one, there are many excellent alternatives to be found*1 (the REAL loss would be if you lost one AFTER you'd built up a lot of positive recognition for it).
Probably for the above reason the trademark thing always seems to come up when nothing else is happening.
Processing a trademark is kind of analogous to taking out the garbage: you expect the company to and have no reason to suspect that they won't, therefor it's really not a concern unless suddenly they aren't. THEN it's a big concern. But otherwise, who really pays attention? JMHO.
PS: I have to admit: I was never too enamored with "Monster Silk" anyway. But again, I don't see it as a big deal.
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*1 and there are consultants who are extremely good at coming up with outstanding trademarks.