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Trademark registration has an examination process where an expert looks at the details of the application and judges as to whether it meets the statutory requirements. It's just different nomenclature.

This http://lawoffashion.com/blog/story/11/16/2012/164 is an interview with an ex-USPTO trademark examiner turned trademark attorney.

That's not to say that every application for registration is treated with rigour and care just that there is absolutely an examination procedure. In the UK one of the targets is [was] a high degree of validity, ie if courts overturn the registration then you've failed.

You don't have to pick a name no-one is using ... that's Trademarks 101 right there. But you knew that as you intimate in your second para.