It's an interesting question, and I think one that would have to be decided before a court. Certainly trademarks for prelaunch products have been granted protec

It's an interesting question, and I think one that would have to be decided before a court. Certainly trademarks for prelaunch products have been granted protection before if there's a clear intent for usage (for example the iPad). Given this guy had a specific plan and turned down a substantial amount of money for the domain, that's likely to play in his favour proving that he both had intent and that the brand had value. However in this case he doesn't even need to prove his usage was trademark worthy, the Groundless Threats doctrine just requires you to be threatened unfairly, which given it seems pretty clear from the interview that the trademark was registered in bad faith (knowing a competitor was going to use it) it seems likely to be covered. If a court finds he was made to sell his domain under duress from a groundless trademark threat then they could invalidate the sale and award substantial compensation. (ianal)