TM or Generic?

[HolySmoke]

Hi,
Can someone please explain to a "newbie" when generic names end and TM names begin.
I understand that "sex" is generic and you could register and start a website with sex.info[ if available] even though there is a sex.com. but what confuses me are names like google,amazon,etc.These are generic but I don't think I would be able to buy the lesser TLDs or develop websites with these names.
So what is the main difference?
Hope this makes some sort of sense.
Thanks.

[fatter]

a lot has to do with what you do with the site, ie: if you regged apple.zd zd being a fictious extension, and sold computers you might get in trouble, but if you used apple.zd to sell apples the fruit there is a good chance you could win a dispute. or in amazons case, if you had amazon.zd and had charter tours of the amazon that might also be a good use of amazon

[HolySmoke]

Thanks ,Fatter,for the info, most helpful.
What if I wanted to buy the name of apple.zd to simply re-sell, would that cause any problems?

[PapaStiz]

Then it is going to depend what type of links show up on the site when your parking it (assuming your doing so).

Setting your keyword to "computers" might get you in hot water. If you set the keyword to "fruit" then you would probably come out ok. Regardless, most of the time companies can bury you in legal fees even if you are not infringing on their TM and they want it bad enough.