Twitter implemented the blue check originally due to impersonation issues. You can read the history on wikipedia, but Tony La Russa sued Twitter over it and the blue checks where the outcome. I'm not an attorney, but it seems not black and white.
Twitter will certainly prioritize the sale of short handles, single word handles, common name handles, and not something like @apple (just because of the volume of squatted and unused handles that can be easily monetized). If they seize and sell @apple, and the new account will impersonate the company Apple - that's a totally different legal situation. If the sold account will just post pics of apples, I don't think the crime of impersonation would be relevant.