According to The Christian Science Monitor:
If one company says it sold the trademark and no longer owns it, and the company that ostensibly bought it says it doesn’t own it, does that mean that the name has been abandoned? If so, could anyone claim it and start using it?
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Assuming all the “ifs” are true, then yes. A trademark is lost when it is abandoned.
But that assumption is something that a company’s lawyers can fight in court, by challenging whether it really has been abandoned in the legal sense.
So the theoretical answer is yes, but the specific answer is, “whatever a court determines if it challenged.”
If a trademark has not been used for a specific amount of time (and I think it’s 5 years, but could be wrong), it’s considered abandoned. You can use it, but can’t trademark it yourself. It’s considered public domain.
If no one thinks they own a trademark, then no one will defend it if anyone else infringes on it. So it will be effectively abandoned. But someone else still can’t trademark it.
It’s true that a trademark can be abandoned and is considered public, but I’m pretty sure it is not true that in cannot be re-registered. You’d have to be using the trademark exclusively, to re-register. I don’t have a specific cite, but I do know that Marvel Comics claims a trademark on “Captain Marvel” and indicates it’s registered with the circled R symbol. Fawcett used this trademark from the 40s to the 50s, and DC Comics now own that character. I assume the lawyers at Times-Warner (the parent company) would know if Marvel could not validly claim this trademark.
Please, please let it die the death it deserves! 
I remember that stupid ad…some dumb blond teling her hsband :'I ate all the Frusen Gladje"-and I’d DO IT AGAIN"!
“Frusen Gladje” was a meaningless name dreamed up by some advertising agency-because it sounded “scandinavian” and sophisticated .
I suspect that as a brand name, it has little value today-like “Edsel” would be for a new car model.
Frusen Glädje (no accent over the e) means ‘frozen delight’ in Swedish.
Häagen-Dazs is the made-up, Scandinavian-sounding name.
Frusen Glädje made the BEST coffee ice cream ever…
It can also be translated as “frozen joy”, which sounds slightly iffy to me…
Well, fresh joy is so difficult to come by — unless you live near the ocean.
I came here to say the EXACT same thing!
And the plastic containers were reusable, too!
I’ve been trying in vain to find that commercial. Not a huge effort, but a once-in-a-while stab. Still can’t find it, but at least now I have a better spelling to go on.