Having been through a similar situation with an organization that I sit on the BOD of, the trademark name registration takes precedence over the previous use of the name.

The non-profit organization I am in the board of provides safety training and certification to construction safety personnel and has done so for some time. Recently, we received a cease and desist letter from an attourny representing a major Canadian city who trademarked the same name we have been issuing certification under for almost 10 years previous. They have a program in place that uses the same name that they trademarked.

We had originally received legal advice that the name would/could never be trademarked and therefore we had no concerns. We are currently in the process of trademarking every other certificate, course and tidbit that we can to avoid such an issue.

So I cannot speak intelligently to US law, what you are describing is entirely possible, very probable and very legal. The other learning... there are others out there doing the same thing as the domains - and collecting user fees or selling the trademark to the original user.

Ethical is another issue.