Trademarks, registered or not are based on first use, not first to register. If someone wants to take the trouble and can provide "prior art" or proof of use in layman's language then it can be challenged and reversed. Whether someone bothers to is what matters. Once it is used by another person and it is not challenged within a certain period of time, then it is considered abandoned and someone else can lay claim to it.
This was exactly my understanding but I'm an economist and not a patent/trademark lawyer.
Problem is we can't afford a lawyer - if we could I think we could definitely stop this nonsense.