Just as a side note, he does not need to register to use TM, if you have a registered trademark it is the R in the circle sign.
I'm pretty sure you can make up your own trademark and just put TM next to it to let people know that you're claiming it as your (for lack of a better word) commonlaw trademark.
Typically you don't see TM used much these days for one reason or another.. I blame globalisation
I know this is slightly off topic, however I saw recently that Microsoft registered ThankYou as a trademark (as seen on Expedia).
I suppose that is what you can do when you own half the world.
Bizarre eh?
G