What you are driving at is known in the trademark law as "descriptiveness," in which the alleged trademark describes a quality or characteristic of the goods or services to which the mark is applied. "Geographic descriptiveness" is a species of descriptiveness, in which the geographic origin is described.
Extreme descriptiveness is genericness. The difference can be elusive, but the best way I know to say it is that a generic mark is the or a "dictionary definition" of the goods or services.
The distinction is important because generic terms can never be protected (at common law) or registered as trademarks. Descriptive trademarks can become protectable by "secondary meaning" or "acquired distinctiveness," such that by long exclusive use and/or promotion of the mark and goods/services, the mark acquires secondary meaning or the ability to distinguish goods and their sellers.
Unfortunately for Sydney, the USPTO apparently has already registered the trademark, meaning they concluded that it was neither descriptive nor generic, or if it was descriptive, that it had acquired distinctiveness.
A mark can become generic through unrestrained use, as was the case with "thermos." But proving that is the case is difficult. It's the kind of defense a trademark owner will make you prove at trial, it's that difficult.