Slashdot Mirror
Hormel Sues Over SpamArrest Name
slammin'j writes "According to this article from the Star Tribune, Hormel has filed a lawsuit against Spam Arrest LLC. for endangering "substantial goodwill and good reputation" of their meat product, Spam. If Hormel wins, it could be bad news for umpteen companies that make use of the word
spam in their name."
Spam? Good reputation? Ha! That stuff has been the butt of jokes as longs as I can remember! Who are they kidding?
Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
They haven't done anything to protect their name, they have no right to start harvesting litigous funds now.
I could've sworn I read something similar to this in The onion once but I'm unable to find the story. Guess it came true.
I'm just surprised Hormel didn't start suing people ages ago for the negative uses of the word spam.
I have often regretted my speech, never my silence.
-Xenocrates
that someone came up with some software to keep that pink canned monstrosity of a luncheon meat out of my cupboard... oh wait, they are talking about email? nevermind
endangering "substantial goodwill and good reputation" of their meat product
Don't they already endanger the goodwill and "good" reputation by calling it a "meat product"?
Mike
so are we going to change our name for junk email now?
lets call it McRibs...
..."'substantial goodwill and good reputation' of their meat product'..."
Oh come on, who do they think they're kidding?
--
http://nemilar.net - Not your grandmother's soup kitchen
Its not really a suprise that they finally got tired of people using the term spam for unsolicited email. Ask anyone on the street what spam is and over half would say email.
Not very good for their marketing dept. All that has changed is that now companies are using spam in their names as opposed to just it being a generic term.
Besides just getting the "dignity" of the name of spam back (what little there is) they also get some publicity, and maybe some cash.
IANAL but...
Hasn't the term "spam" been rendered generic by now? I don't think Hormel has done anything in the past to protect the trademark against this use. Besides, the last time I read their website it indicated that only the form "SPAM" was trademarked and copyrighted by them.
Hmmm....
IANAL disclaimer - The judge will probably rule there is no confusion between the two. Spam has taken on an entirely different generic meaning w.r.t email, that is unlikely to be confused with the popular luncheon meat. Hormel should have enforced their trademark much earler to stop the alternative usage of the word "Spam". This is almost certainly too little, too late.
My rights don't need management.
What? Why can't people write proper explenations of their posts?
Are they serious? Trying to protect the "good name" of spam! ROFL!!!
~~~Please pass the salt, I hate unsalted MD5s
Isn't one supposed to check for this kind of stuff prior to creation? I just started my own business and spent significant time on the patent/trademark website.
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Of course, this begs the question that Hormel's Spam *has* a good name already!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
So are they going to go after Monty Python as well? :)
Read reviews of shopping cart software
They have traditionally been pretty good about letting people use the term Spam.
I have to agree with them on this. Anything like a company named "Spam Arrest" or "Fuck Spam, Inc." or something like that could be considered slander. I mean, if you ignore the e-mail side of things, it sounds like a company set up to make money by telling people how bad Spam ham is.
The ratio of people to cake is too big
Don't they realize that this makes their trademark MORE commonly known, and probably increases their sales?
Now honestly, apart from college students (and most of them probably prefer Ramen noodles), who actually eats spam regularly? Don't they realize that people might hear the term, see their can on the grocery store shelf and think "oh, so that's what it was named for... wonder what it tastes like?"
You'd think they'd appreciate the free publicity.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
What happened to:
"We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters."
-- derby
Hopefully they won't win because the name spam has gone from a trademark into common usage. IANAL, but had they sued the first few people to use spam to describe unsolicited email, they might have had a chance.
trademark law regards names in an area. for example, hormel has a fair and legit claim to spam as a trade name for a food product. Spam as a digital internet-like concept is entirely unrelated to Spam the luncheon meat. If they win this, lots of domain name disputes will get even more retarded.
In SOVIET RUSSIA... erm...NSA AMERICA, the Internet logs onto YOU!
They could get around it the same way that I used to avoid reserved words in programming - use all swears.
Instead of "Spam Arrest" they could just change their names to "Fuck Shitters" or "Explosive Ass Mansion" (I am fully aware that the second example only had one swear in it, and two non-swear words - but I thought it sounded like a good company name - or a new ride at Disney).
Another option would be to just flail on the keyboard and then do a quick search to see if that is anywhere on the net - if not - bingo!
For instance, they could go with the name ";oasdguos " which might not be as easy to remember, but I think over time it could grow on you like a cancerous tumor (which could also be their new ad campaign).
If all else fails, we can just resort to all numbers.
Their new name, from this day forward would be "Comapny 16843329" - not to be confused with 16843328 or 16843330 which make coat hangers and tampons respectively.
I should probably not say anymore since as it is, I've said too much and feel that perhaps a consulting fee is in order.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
So companies that fight spam "endanger the good will" of their company now, huh?
I hope they get twice as many Viagra and tight-teen-snatch ads as a consequence from now on.
From the site:
This seems like a break from that policy.
Isn't the onus on trademark holders to enforce the trademark consistently in order to prevent it from becoming a generic term?
I'm sure pretty much everyone who reads Slasdot would agree that Spam is indeed a generic term now. Everyone now associates Spam with unsolicited commerical email rather than a tin of disgusting, highly-processed, gelatinous meat.
Unless They were using pictures of Hormel's "Spam" product or making refrences to the food "Spam" and not electronic spam, I don't see how this would hold up.
Lastly, spamarrest looks pretty weak. I receive occasional automated emails which I *do* want, but ~120-180 pieces of spam along with them, 7 days of holding things and requiring me to sift through it is no better than I do right now, using MailWasher (which could use a *lot* of improvement.)
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
or not - Hormel had the name first
If you can read this sig - the bitch fell off.
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=spam
"unsolicited usually commercial E-mail sent to a large number of addresses"
Isn't this going to get thrown out pretty fast, since it's a commonly used word, not related to the original product? (unlike Band-aid and Kleenex)
Hormel will only come after you for a few reasons (we have researched this heavily):
1. You use a capital S in spam. Ie: spamARREST would most likely be okay in their eyes.
2. You try to trademark or copyright _ANY_ name with spam in it.
So to avoid being sued, simply use a lowercase S or do not try to protect your name legally!
>On its Web site, Hormel states that it does not object to use of
>the word spam as a "slang term," as long as pictures of the product
>are not used with such references.
This is true. There used to be an entry in the FAQ on Hormel's website saying that they were cool with people using the term "spam" to refer to Unsolicted Commercial E-mail (UCE). They only asked that folks did not use "SPAM" in all uppercase.
From reading the article, I gather that Hormel is concerned that another commercial entity with the word "spam" in its trademark could cause confusion with the luncheon meat. (at least among computer-illiterate people)
Whether those concerns are enough to stop Spam Arrest from using the word 'spam' is something that will probably be determined after a legal battle.
For the love of SPAM
Oh my...
The unofficial
Doesn't it stand for:
Super
Premium
Anti
Meat
"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts...for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang
spam is their own original word, unlike some companies that trademark ordinary words (cough M$) they have to protect it or lose it, the dictionary lists it as theirs via Monty Python team.
Main Entry: 1spam
Pronunciation: 'spam
Function: noun
Etymology: from a skit on the British television series Monty Python's Flying Circus in which chanting of the word Spam (trademark for a canned meat product) overrides the other dialogue
Date: 1994
people that fight "spam" should really call it UCE as thats what it is, ahh semantics
Isn't Hormel suing because Spam Arrest trademarked the name "Spam Arrest", since SPAM would already be trademarked by Hormel.
it's silly that after so long they'd be upset about spam-fighting software having having that in it's name. they've made little attempt to stop the widespread use of their trademark on the internet, and now more people associate the word "spam" with junk mail or vikings than with hormel's lovely "pork with ham" product.
I've wondered about this for a long time. Spam has been around for...ever I guess. Sorry if I don't know the entire history of spam. Anyway, for the past ten years or so, their product name got swiped to mean 'a whole lot of crap.'
Not just junk email, but pretty much any sort of annoying repeatitive garbage. I've been IRC and people complain about "chat spam." The next big problem for cell phone users is SMS spam. The connotation is always negative. If I were Hormel, that would really piss me off. I mean, sure spam is a pretty low-quality product, but it's not really bad.
Sadly for Hormel, though, it doesn't really matter. You can't put the genie back in the bottle. People have gotten used to calling junk anything spam--it's already entered the common lexicon. They may be able to stop a company from using it in their name, but they'll never rename junk email.
We don't have a state-run media we have a media-run state.
So they think people will get confused and think that consumption of spam is against the law and that they'd get arrested for possession and intent to distribute spam or something like that.
Is that it? Give me a BREAK people. Who eats spam anyway.
An Indian-American Hindu committed to non-violent thought/speech/action alarmed by the global explosion of radical Islam
No, Hormel is not suing Spamarrest over their name.
/. editors did not read the article, just the submission, which was TOTALLY WRONG!
Hormel is opposing Spamarrest's attempt to TRADEMARK "Spamarrest".
It is clearly stated in the article. The
Hormel has been pretty damn cool about the whole "spam as email/SPAM as meat" thing - go look at their web page about it.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Let's call Spam "DLM" (digital luncheon meat) from now on, avoid the lawsuits!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
stinkmeat
Besides as others will no doubt show, Hormel won't be able to show any harm to their canned meat product since Spam Arrest is in a completely different business.
I'm basing this on the fact that the company a friend works for obtained a trademark for 'Microsoft', but in the contact lenses field (this was well after MS was created); they were approched by Microsoft (Billy G's) so that MS could buy it from them, which they did, since they couldn't sue since it didn't apply to the 'computer' field. This company was in Canada, btw
Couldn't this apply in this case too?
AC comments get piped to
This morning my local paper, the Austin American Statesman, printed a small article about this as well. According to that article, Hormel doesn't mind the use of the word "spam" as a slang term, so long as pictures of their product aren't used with it. They're sueing companies that use their trademarked name "Spam" in their own names or in the names of their products. Unfortunately for them, they should have started fighting that battle years and years ago when the slang usage of "spam" first began to spread. Seems too late to do anything about it now. Spam as slang for "junk email" is now firmly entrenched in our culture. It's a dictionary word now.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
They were very accepting about the use of the word until Spam Arrest tried to trademark the name; so don't jump all over them about waiting until now to say anything.
From the article: "...challenged Spam Arrest's applications to trademark its company name"
I have purchased exactly one can of SPAM. It's the one sitting in the cube to represent all of the SPAM we get. Sometimes we pass it around, use it as a paperweight, or make jokes.
Nobody really expects to actually eat the SPAM --ewwww.
Blogging because I can...
Spokesdemons for the Devil scoffed at the allegations, saying "Good luck finding an attorney who isn't already on the Dark Lord's retainer."
I mean.. come on, do they really think that by getting the name back they can suddenly boost sales of pigs snouts and discarded trotters ??
And on a side thought, will the people at Spam Gourmet have to actually eat the stuff and compose critiques on it to avoid lawsuits ?
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
Unsolicited Commercial Email... that's what it is.
;)
;)
Sure the Monty Python reference was a good in-joke for a while... and the media may have picked up on it, but "UCE" works and we don't have the problem with Hormel. (And Hormel doesn't have the problem with us.) Why do we keep this up when all it does is feed the lawyers?
Furthermore, "UCE" still lends itself to cool names... think "UCEless" or something similar.
I'm tempted to TradeMark that... hhhmmm...
libertarianswag.com
That isn't funny at all.
Next Spike Lee will sue SpikeTV over damaging his name...
Oh wait...
The term "SPAM", when used to refer to "unsolicited commercial electronic mail", is so commonly used that it is even used in the names of laws, such as the "Anti-Spam Act of 2003".
http://www.spamlaws.com/federal/108hr2515.html
Will Hormel also sue the U.S. Congress?
While I'm all for companies defending their trademarks, I think Hormel has waited just a LITTLE bit too long on this one.
assert(birth_date<time-86400)
I'd imagine if they were troubled by "Spam Arrest" that "SpamAssassin" would bother Hormel as well. I know what you are thinking, SpamAssassin is open source, however... take a look at here. They are a commercial site selling UCE blocking email software. They do have a link to the 'real' SpamAssassin we all know and love.
The Hormel group has really been good natured about the whole thing going back to the Monty Python skit and going forward from there. They provide the following page explaining their position:
:-D )
http://www.spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm
I think they might be objecting to combining Spam and Arrest. (Considering what their (Hormel's) product does to the cholestorally challenged they may have cause for complaint.
Trademark protection and dilution are certainly a strange area of the law to deal in.
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
And here was I, thinking that Hormel was pretty sensible about this whole "spam" thing. Not anymore, it seems. But by the time a dictionary recognises the term "spam" as having a meaning with regards to unsolicited email, it must surely be too late to start claiming exclusive rights on the word (except where it really would cause consumer confusion, which isn't the case here).
proof, n. A demonstration that a conclusion is implied by certain premises and axioms.
Who would have EVER suspected that the editors may not be reading the stories that are being submitted and ultimately posted?
1937: Hormel rolls out its first can of a luncheon meat it calls Spiced Ham. Kenneth Daigneau. An actor and friend of the Hormel family, wins $100 in a contest to name the pink product. The winner combined the "sp" with the "am" and got Spam.
**sarcasm**
Furniture company Gautier to consider legal action, saying it's entire Windows brand home furniture had to be scrapped. Everone thinks our furniture is full of holes, and could allow easy access to burglars, said Gautier.
Friend of the farmer, Earthworm Inc. was aghast, when kids mercilessly stamped oer them. "It's crazy, something called Slammer worm hit the internet, and we're no longer friends. Terrible!"
Even the Cholera virus Inc. is contemplaing action. Earlier, people looked at us thru jaundiced eyes, and we got by. Now it's like, we need to stay miles away from people... even if we disguise us as spam, it doesn't help...
Cheers.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
No one asks for a tissue, they ask for a 'kleenex.'
No one asks for an adhesive strip, they want a 'band-aid.'
cotton swab? no, a 'q-tip'
gelatin? of course not, 'jell-o'
clear tape? no, 'scotch tape'
soda, pop, or soft drink? in some parts of the country it's 'coke'
corporate takeover of the english language is a bitch. Hormel hasn't taken many steps to protect their trademark, and now they're getting bit.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Hormel does not care if they use the word "SPAM".(or at one point did not care. They may have changed their minds.) The problem is that a lot of sites/groups (Slashdot included) use a picture of the Hormel Spam Can as a symbol of the email spam. That's what they are mad about. That is very much Hormel's property and is definitely not something that can be confused with email.
(This couresy of NRP this morning. The article seems a bit thin on the subject. YMMV)
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
The Austin, Minn., food company, which introduced Spam in 1937, challenged Spam Arrest's applications to trademark its company name.
They aren't suing because they use the word "Spam" in their company name, it is the fact they are trying to get a trademark of their company name (Spam Arrest), which Hormel is trying to stop. The use of the word "spam" to refer to junk email has already been addressed by them. This time, it is in regards to somebody using their trademark in a manner they have not approved of.
There are only 10 kinds of people in this world... those who understand binary and those who don't
It's not like Spam is what's left over from meat processing.
It's a product, not a by-product.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
SPAM is great! Don't disrespect SPAM. (Anyone tried spreadable SPAM? It's just yummy.)
The problem is you don't get to trademark a word for all uses.
Unless Hormel cans of spam have a ethernet connection, it won't fly. You can have trademarks in different areas, that are not a violation, ie. Ford cars and Ford Models. There is no confusion unless one is on top of the other.
Fight Spammers!
I see this time and again in cease and desist letters. A claim that such and such usage will do harm to a good name/image achieved at considerable expense, over time. A fair point, but often (I feel) tenuous at best. A person would have to already be very confused, a mental lightweight, to believe that eating Spam sandwiches could lead to their arrest. OTOH this could lead to economic revival, but pushers selling illicit food products and gangs fighting to establish turf.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Spam means, when talking about email, unsolicited bulk email. Enlarge your penis, debt-free now, viagra online - you know the drill.
I believe the Spam Co. will loose this case, due to the fact that "spam" now has become a generic term in the e-mail world, like Sony did over the "walkman" trademark.
Here's a good story, in case you want to read more about earlier trademark disputes.
www.6502asm.com - Code 6502 assembly or.. DIE!!
Ewwww...this software tastes terrible!
<a href="http://www.joblessjimmy.com">Work is dumb and so is Jobless Jimmy.</a>
Maybe I should trademark the letter 'E'.
Clearly Hormel has a right to be concerned... Joe Q. and Kathy Q. Public might be strolling down the isle at the local grocery store.... suddenly a bright, blue colored tin of pasturized, processed, congealed, heart-attack-in-a-can, pulverized mostly meat by-product catches their eyes. In unison they lunge at the aforementioned delicacy hoping to devour it soon after the get home. Later in the same shopping session they come along a card board box that isn't blue, and doesn't contain mischeivous bits of animal in it - "email" "security" "penis length" printed in 72 point fonts all over it. It's lighter than the tin of meat something (we all know that cardboard weighs much less than gelatinized fat) but it still says something familiar so being the rocket scientists they are they assume it's a condiment of some sort. The kind of condiment that is dispensed by shiny, 5 inch diameter wafers. Even readers of PC Magazine should be able to figure out the difference between the gelatinous goo, and junk email! And, if we're honest with each other both spams seem to share a common sense of humor do they not? I mean what with foreskin' being the primary ingredient in both?
Ah that's why the old can-of-spam icon was canned and replaced with that dull pig.
just rename SPAM? I mean, the stuff never really had a good reputation in the first place. Rename it, maybe change it ever-so-slightly, try to market it as something other than a repulsive meat wanna-be.
And if you think spam is bad... how about "spork." I've never had the stuff, but with a name like that who would want to?
Just change the spelling. Put in some extra letters in there that you don't need (or ask for).
We will see the following:
Microsoft being sued for using ".net" Sun Microsystems being sued by Nasa for using "Sun" Eminem is sued by M&M
Yes, they have a museum. I have one to, it is re-created in my e-mail box every single day
Instead of the Rosetta Stone, I have spams that are entirely garbage characters.
Instead of a stuffed elephant in the atrium, I have many spams promising prodigious enlargement.
Instead of a building to house the collection, I get many offers for home loans.
Instead of historical film loops showing in little theatres, my spam museum contains spams from Netflix.
Also featured are amazing pharmaceutical advances, such as v1agra
Instead of the priceless treasures of the Czars, my spam museum in my inbox contains several offers of Russian spamwives.
Instead of classical sculpture celebrating the human form, this museum contains many offers of "See your moms friend nekad blb".
Ah, the many wonders. Amazed? You shouldn't be, check your own inbox!
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
I should have realized I'd be advised by a large number of actual and armchair patent attorneys about the scope limitations of patents, and sincerely regret not posting the entirity (albeit small) of my knowledge of the law as disclaimer...
My point was that we should give Hormel a break, considering their relative good humor compared to what many corporations would have done in similar circumstances.
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Sorry, that conflicts with the product from Armour (famous for Vienna Sausages and Armored Hot Dogs): "Deviled Stinkmeat". You will still get sued.
When you consider that SPAM has been manufactured since World War II--probably one of the few items from that era that you can find in a 24-hr convenience store (barring, say, pocket combs, nail clippers, and chewing gum)--it's *almost* understandable that Hormel would just now be waking up to the fact that their product is being maligned. Someone should tell them that we won the war, also.
Monster Zero is the reason we cannot live on the surface, but must live forever live underground like this.
Now with Spam Arrest and others putting "spam" in their name, Hormel has to worry about people walking into a store and leaving with a software package under the misimpression that they're buying genuine Hormel SPAM.
[scratches head] Did I miss something here? There do seem to be people out there who don't immediately recognize this as an obviously frivolous lawsuit. What are they seeing that I'm missing?
"Convictions are more dangerous enemies of truth than lies."
Now, I've seen everything. People suing McDonald's for making them fat. Hormel suing a spam filter/blocking company for trademark violation. Really this is such a silly lawsuit. No one is going to start frying up a stack of breast enhancement offers when you ask them to cook some Spam for you. If Microware couldn't win its case against Apple in the OS 9 trademark dispute, Hormel isn't getting close.
Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
I thought this was resolved with the compromise that SPAM was the meat product and spam was the junk email?
7 November 2006: The day Americans realized corruption and incompetence weren't addressing 11 September 2001
Start calling unsolicited commercial email Firebird.
Wait, so many replies already, and no-one started singing in a lunchroom with a horned helmet on their head!?!? /. crowd*
*starts to lose faith in the
home
...the meat product, that is. It's yummy, and no, I'm not in Hawaii. Slice it up and fry it, serve it with eggs and potatoes. Mmm mmm good!
I just thought I'd let you know.
Isn't pork ham?
"Cow and Beef"
"Poultry and Chicken"
"Tuna and Fish"
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
substantial goodwill and good reputation" of their meat product, Spam
Huh? What? What goodwill and good reputation? Spam is fucking crap. I would eat dog-shit before I ate spam.
The reason they call it Spam is because after you spit it out, what you say is a combination of "shit" and "damn".
social sciences can never use experience to verify their statemen
Why hasn't Hormel realized the marketing opportunity of the slang term "spam"... instead of "You've got Mail"... "You've got Spam, and a delicious meat subsitute" eh, maybe I shouldn't be their marketing director
Why don't they go after Spam Remedy first? That horrible, horrible program that actually uses spam to advertise itself!
If you want to get rid of unusable meat, that's what hot dogs are for.
All I'm saying is that it's not like Spam is that bad of a product. It's real meat.
--
the strongest word is still the word "free"
Hormel sues spam blockers
The film Muppet Treasure Island includes a character named "spaam" the leader of the Pig Pirates. Hormel got an injusnction against the use of their name but then lost it Ultimately the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the U.S. concluded:
See here here and good o'l google for more info.
Lest we forget Hormel does sell Spam brand Boxer Shorts in the Adult Apparel section of their spamgifts catologue.
The meat product is called 'SPAM'. Unsolicited e-mail is called 'spam'.
:P
Yeah I know, only those weird people who use UNIX will probably see these are totally different words
Every expression is true, for a given value of 'true'
...to just rename SPAM to 'Assorted Animal Parts'?
- Despite popular opinion, I am not perfect.
Hormel are not being "bad guys" here. Hormel is not trying to keep you from using the word spam in your private conversations. They do want to keep another proprietary, for-profit company from holding a trademark on a name they they have used, developed and marketed to the public for many years. If they do not show due diligence in protecting their trademark, they lose right to that trademark. Even if the court rules against them, they made due diligence to protect the trademark. I think Hormel has been pretty cool about letting people use the term and has not been hassling people but must make efforts to protect their trademark.
You shank my Jengaship!
Reminds me of the "Sagan" chip that was in a prototype Amiga. Engineers had meant it as homage to the great Carl Sagan. Well, ol' Carl demanded payment for his name. They renamed it instead, to BHA. When Sagan found out it stood for "Butt-headed Astronomer", he sued them saying that BHA was "defamatory". He lost the case.
Make sure it's the real Polish manufactured stuff though - there are other factories, and the taste just isn't right.
oh brave new world, that has such people in it!
I agree that Hormel has been generous in allowing use of their name for unsolicited email.
When Hormel loses the battle, and every variation of the word spam can be registered by others as a trademark, then Hormel will be held up as yet another example of why companies should not be generous with use of their trademarks, and why they have to be aggressive in suing over property rights issues.
Personally, I hope Hormel wins and that spamArrest will have to come up with a different name for their product. But is it more likely to be yet another example of how nice companies lose.
im gonna sue them too.
my MEAT sure has the best reputation amongst the ladies.
they always want more of my MEAT.
If they had started their lawsuit 10 years ago or so, they might have made a difference. Now, it's already in the dictionary and common English language, much like xerox. Xerox had their own lawsuit and lost. This will be similar.
Zodiac Survey
there was a whole issue with Linux and trademarking too, right?
This post was brought to you by the number 584811 and the characters / and .
Ughh.. speaking of artery clogging spam... Here is some info about the spam level at my company.
From Wednesday, 02 July 09:00:06 to Wednesday, 02 July 11:31:02.
Total emails: 971
Total emails rejected 577
Total emails accepted 394
Rejection details:
Spamhaus 306
NJABL 151
SpamCop 85
SORBS 35
These numbers don't even count the two-page long ACL that is blocking spammers at the gateway router.
This is total coincidence, but this morning on CNET News.com, there was a link to King of spam meets its maker, which appeared Today in Tech History back in 1997.
Is this a SpamTM conspiracy?
www.timcoleman.com is a total waste of your time. Never go there.
"substantial goodwill and good reputation"
Huh? What good reputation? In the UK at least, Spam is generally a derogatory name - as in "he's an awful cook - all he cooks is Spam". Surely there has to be some good reputation to damage first before you can sue for damages.
Hormel has been very understanding regarding the use of the word 'spam' as a term for mass unsolicited email. It has been willing to share the name space and, IIRC, even support the alternative use. If they are challenging this particular case, it is not an indication that they will then move to more reasonable use of the word elsewhere.
Maybe we could re-coin "spam" something like "litigious sh*tloaf".
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
...would be to rename it to "chili".
You could even have your ChiliFilter categorize your incoming mail by "bean number"!
For example, "three-bean chili" = MORTAGES CHEAP!
"I'm an old-fashioned type of guy. I worship the Sun and Moon as gods. And fear them."
In other news, Hormel lauds Spamgourmet.com as a damn fine service all around.
You know what?
In a bizarre twist, the spokesdemon then started dancing around screaming "ATTORNIES! ATTORNIES! ATTORNIES! ATTORNIES! WHOOO! ATTORNIES! ATTORNIES!"
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
There is vigorously defended, and there is frivolous. In this case, it would seem the latter.
Fight Spammers!
In case someone doesn't actually know why we call it 'spam' (spam spam spam).
... lovely spam, wonderful spam ..."
"The original Spam was coined in 1937 by the Hormel corporation as a name for its potted meat product. This brand name is a blend of spiced ham.
From there, the transition from meat product to internet term has a stop with Monty Python's Flying Circus. In 1970, that BBC comedy show aired a sketch that featured a cafe that had a menu that featured items like "egg, bacon, and spam;" "egg, bacon, sausage, and spam;" " spam, bacon, sausage, and spam;" "spam, egg, spam, spam, bacon, and spam;" and finally "lobster thermidor aux crevettes with a mornay sauce garnished with truffle pate, brandy, and a fried egg on top and spam." To make matters sillier, the cafe was filled with Vikings who periodically break out into song praising Spam: "Spam, spam, spam, spam
Computer people adopted the term from the Python sketch to mean overrunning a fixed-sized buffer with too much data, in other words the data was like the Spam in the sketch, something excessive and undesirable. With the commercialization of the Internet, the term expanded to include the unwanted commercial messages and that became the primary meaning."
I'm pretty sure (though not 100%) that SpamArrest is a spammer operation, designed to collect "confirmed live" addresses.
Stay away from them as far as you can, never respond to a challange is my advice now.
Employee of Inrupt, Project Release Manager and Community Manager for Solid
Did Monty Python get a similar suite?
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
...would be more fitting, given the subject matter of the vast bulk of it.
the CEO of Hormel isued the following statment "People have been buying spam filters in the hope of removeing our product from there food, we feel that this mesure to circumvent our policy of mixing spam with more high grade meats, violates the DCMA and will be sueing them to protect our companys intrests"
Roses are Red Violates are Blue im not very good a poetry but i have many other redeming qualitys
it was on this morning, very interesting: http://discover.npr.org/features/feature.jhtml?wfI d=1317769
Creationists are a lot like zombies. Slow, but powerful and numerous. And they all want to eat our brains.
Hum spam.com
Note: UCE stated means: "unsolicited commercial email"
We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.
Ah, I forgot about that other hand, again!
"640 K ought to be enough for anybody." -- Bill Gates, 1981
Human?
You can have it fast, accurate, or pretty. Pick any 2.
Lets all show up in the courthouse dressed as vikings. Whenever one of the attourneys says the word "spam" we can all burst into song! "Spamspamspamspam spamspamspamspam..."
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
This is totally wrong. The term "Spam" originated in the BBS days when lamers would post stuff that was OT or otherwise useless. The resulting traffic was "unfit for human consumption." Some people started referring to this as "Spam" which rapidly evolved into a verb (e.g. "Spamming") When mailing lists started to take over idiots would still post (or even cross-post) useless stuff which was referred to as "Spamming the list." This crap would accumulate in your inbox. Email advertisments had similar properties, not to mention that ad spammers started using mailing lists as a cheap and easy way to get a wide distribution. Thus the term "Spam" began to refer exclusively to unsolicited advertisments.
Stupid
People
Asking for
Money
Now, given that Spam Arrest is NOT trying to trademark "SPAM Arrest", then by the companys' own admission they don't have a case.
From the timeline on their webpage:
1937: SPAM is born! The first can of SPAM rolls off the production line. Originally called HORMEL Spiced Ham, the comapny holds a contest to create a name as distinctive as the taste. B combining the "sp" from spiced with the "am" from ham, the winner comes up with SPAM. Top prize: $100.
So there you have it: "SPiced hAM" => SPAM. And to think some dude only got 100 bones for that name. If only he knew what he started...
Quick and tasty, Spam with? I used to like Spam battered and deep fried. Lovely, with chips.
Now I've gone health concious, so there must be some ideas around to cook Spam on my G.F.L.M.F.R.G.M.
Might even put them on the B.B.C. web site!!!!!!!!
IANAL, but wouldn't one of the points of this kind of case be showing that people are actually associating the usage of SPAM related to email with SPAM that you buy at the grocery store? When I see the name of the corporation, I certainly do NOT think of meat (or meat products). I think of all the ridiculous stuff that hits my inbox.
I was taking one day at a time, but then several days got together and ambushed me. (from a Rhymes with Orange comic)
There was a good story on NPR's Morning Edition this morning about this ... The NPR story has a bit more 'meat' if you'll pardon the pun.
This should be classified under "what-will-these-retards-come-up-with-next"
/. news - lol) by any means possible.
I guess when you make bland-ass products that only contribute to obesity, it's important to get your name in the news every now and then (wow, I just called
Must-not-watch TV!
thats another one..
Sure it has a bad reputation and such, but trust me. It's only like $2 a can, go to the store today and get one. Take it back to work and have a laugh with your colleagues for a taste test.
Spam is a little spicy, and I understand they make one that's more spicy (but they don't sell that in my market). In particular, for all those of you who are not into pork they make a wonderful product made from all Turkey. There's also a lower-fat one.
Spam is nice, cuts cleanly and makes great sandwiches. You can also pan-fry it like you would a ham or sausage.
It's not expensive, and of particular interest is because it's sealed in that super can it'll stay good in the can for a year or more. spam was awesome to find in the cupboard when we were in university and the food and food money had run out. "SPAM! We're Saved!"
Sure it's funny, but do yourself a favor and at least try it.
...aren't trademarks very field-specific? I mean, if what I'm selling is software, there's really no confusion argument is there? What, are people expecting their CD drive to turn that disk into some kind of potted meat?
Given the erosion of their trademark and the ubiquity of SPAM = UCE, it would be hard to argue that this causes them any damage that hasn't already been done. Equally, I believe it will be hard for them to argue that their trademark carries to software. But, courts are courts and we shall see.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Maybe I should trademark the letter 'E'.
rk.. havn't you hard? Thr's alrady a tradmark on that lttr. B carful man.. you don't wanna gt sud for copyright infringmnt..
slashdot!=valid HTML
A poke with my fork
Gelatinous pink cubeness
It twitches slightly
Spam-ku
--
BitTorrent in C -- LibBT
http://www.sf.net/projects/libbt
Why can't Hormel change the name of their product to SLURM.
Mmmmm Slurmmm...
Shouldn't this have been posted from the isnt-that-horse-already-out-of-the-barn department?
Everyone I know derides Spam (the meat). I would guess that this dates back to the Monty Python show. But I only know a few people that have actually eaten it, and they uniformly respond that it isn't so bad. My girlfriend's mother in particular says that if you grill it and sprinkle it with brown sugar it makes a good sandwich (?).
/. community consumes, is there anyone who eats spam? Hasn't anyone anything good to say about SPAM?
Given the amount of bachelor chow I'm sure the
Adam T
It's sort of sad that so many companies are resorting to law suits to make money these days. Bad economy I guess. - G!mpy
Why UCE is called SPAM in the first place:
.MIL domains), and was literally intended to mean "Sh*t Parading As Meat": a forward use of the acronym to apply to the content of messages which one had to pay to download over modem lines (if only in connect time) after having downloaded a misleading subject line. To understand this, you have to know that, of necessity, Usenet news readers of the way downloaded header information seperately from message bodies, so that you didn't pay to download things you were not interested in reading.
In World War II, Hormel SPAM was used as field rations, since it had a long shelf-life without refrigeration.
American Soldiers of the time grew so tired of having no meat available *but* Hormel SPAM, they came up with derogatory terms for it. One of these was for Hormel SPAM on toast, called "Sh*t on a Shingle".
Another derogatory term was a made-up acronym translation for the word "SPAM" (the current linguistic slang for this is "backronym", meaning a reverse-engineered acronym). This acronym was "Sh*t Parading As Meat".
About 15 years ago, with the NSF regulation of the Internet, which prevented commercial speech of any kind, being dropped, and the subsequent flood of commercial messages on Usenet with subject lines that appeared to promise one thing, but in fact contained advertisements, the term SPAM was first applied to unwanted advertising.
It was applied by a WW II veteran (many of the Internet users at the time wre from
In any case, it's apparently been lost in lore and "use lower case, not upper case" FUD that SPAM when applied to UCE actually means S.P.A.M..
We don't write it this way, any more than we write "UCE", "FUD", "RADAR", "LASER", etc., with the seperating periods to indicate their nature as acronyms. IMO, this is because most Internet users really suck at English. 8-).
Since when has the name "Spam" had "substantial goodwill and good reputation"?
During the Hormel strike in the mid 1980's in Austin Minnesota (home of that delicious potted meat product), the union sold tee-shirts emblazoned with the words:
Cram Your Spam.
I wish I still had mine.
Washington Post article "Protecting Its Proprietary Pork"
Hormel tried this before with Jim Henson productions. Can't quite remember which Muppet movie, but one of the characters' name was Spam and he was of course, a pig.
Hormel got all bent out of shape, took Henson to court alleging causes of action under both copyright and trademark law. Henson claimed "fair use" and won.
This is a little different in the sense that it is a straight trademark dilution claim. Now before everybody starts posting that "it's not confusing! One's computer spam and one's pork left-overs squished in a can", dilution is not about confusion... it is about loss of goodwill and damage to reputation as a cause of the defendant's use of the mark and it applies to "famous marks".
The interesting issue is that companies in the computer field who use "Spam" in the name are doing so because the public coined the term Spam to mean "junk mail". They didn't give it's negative connotation!
IMHO, Hormel should not be allowed to prohibit a company from using a generic term in its own industry especially when it is Hormel's responsibility to, from the outset, make it abundantly clear to the public that Spam should not be used to describe "junk mail". There failure to do so bars any recovery (AFAIC).
-Anthony(shamelessly stolen from http://www.macbomb.com/news/oldnews/mbf08.18.97.ht ml)
In 1993 MacWeek reported that Apple was developing three computers code named Piltdown Man, Carl Sagan, and Cold Fusion. Upon reading this tidbit of information, the real Carl Sagan fired off a very sober letter to MacWEEK, stressing that his "endorsement was not for sale." Sagan's letter appeared in the January 10, 1994 issue of MacWEEK and elicited howls of derision from the Macintosh community. Most people wondered why Sagan was complaining. It has been suggested that what upset Sagan the most was being grouped with two discredited scientific discoveries/hoaxes, Piltdown Man and Cold Fusion. In deference to the noted star-gazer, Apple changed the Carl Sagan code name to BHA. Things were beginning to return to normal when Sagan learned that BHA supposedly stood for Butt-head Astronomer. He put pressure on Apple's lawyers, who insisted the project engineers come up with a new code. They settled on LAW, which stands for Lawyers Are Wimps. Nonetheless, in the third week of April, 1994, Sagan sued Apple in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, charging it with defamation of character. He sought unspecified damages, probably hoping to reap "billions and billions" of dollars. Fortunately for Apple, Judge J. Baird dismissed the suit, opining that "One does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase 'butt-head.' "
Excerpt from The Mac Bathroom Reader by Owen W. Linzmayer. ISBN #0-7821-1531-4. Order a copy direct from owl@bigfoot.com.
Lovely Spaaam! Wonderful Spaaam!
Lovely Spaaam! Wonderful Spam.
Spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-am.
Spa-a-a-a-a-a-a-am.
Lovely Spaaam! (Lovely Spam!)
Lovely Spaaam! (Lovely Spam!)
Lovely Spaaam!
Spaaam, Spaaam, Spaaam, Spaaaaaam!
How many lawsuits are going to make the front page of Slashdot? Look back over the past couple of days and you'll see that a large portion of the stories are all lawsuits! Who's suing who and who has violated what license and blah blah.
Sincerely,
Sick of hearing about IP and licensing hoohaa.
once your trademark has been openly infringed on in Congress you know it's mainstream and you're fucked
they missed the boat on this by a good 5-6 years
no judge will enforce this now
> sent in such abundance to Allied troops
So you're saying that Hormel pioneered the art of Spamvertisement -- with actual Spam?
lets call it McRibs...
I have a wild idea. Maybe we could call it "junk email."
Naw, it would never catch on.
TodayTM BillyJoelTM GoogleTMd for StitchTMes due to WindowsTM while RollerbladeTMing with an AppleTM and a PopsicleTM
My mother was born in the Phillipines in 1940.
I swear, to this day, when she travels, she carries a can of spam with her. Filipinas of her generation revere Spam the way that geeks revere caffeine.
People keep saying that Hormel hasn't been defending their trademark, but it seems to me that they have established a clear policy on their site about how the feel about their trademark, and they've stuck consistently to it. In short, if you use "spam" generically, they don't care. If you use it in a way that associates it with their product (i.e. images of the product, or SPAM in all caps as they always do it), they'll come after you.
In this case, somebody wants to trademark the name, and they are fighting that. It seems reasonable that two trademarks containing the word "spam" could be more of a threat than widespread, non-trademarked generic usage. Their position seems reasonable and consistent. Maybe wrong, maybe right, but reasonable.
And I think that they should be given a lot of credit for this. It they were really sending out C&D letters consistently for years and years, they'd be one more of the many companies regularly mocked and griped about on /., but they haven't been. They've only taken legal action in rare cases that are more likely to affect them directly. They're using common sense, and keeping their lawyers in check, but not signing away their rights. Let's give them some credit.
In particular, an excerpt on how they want it used:
We do not object to use of this slang term to describe UCE, although we do object to the use of our product image in association with that term. Also, if the term is to be used, it should be used in all lower-case letters to distinguish it from our trademark SPAM, which should be used with all uppercase letters.
Now this is where it gets good, because this is the statement on whether it diminishes trademark (emphasis is mine):
This slang term does not affect the strength of our trademark SPAM. In a Federal District Court case involving the famous trademark STAR WARS owned by LucasFilms, the Court ruled that the slang term used to refer to the Strategic Defense Initiative did not weaken the trademark and the Court refused to stop its use as a slang term. Other examples of famous trademarks having a different slang meaning include MICKEY MOUSE, to describe something as unsophisticated; TEFLON, used to describe President Reagan; and CADILLAC, used to denote something as being high quality.
In short, it's interesting that, despite saying this on their website, they'd slap (or is that SLAPP here?) somebody in the face about this.
This sig no verb.
I wish my meat had substantial goodwill and good reputation.
I'm sorry, but I simply could not resist. I will now stoically accept my modding down like a man.
--- Ban humanity.
I have an idea for a start-up! I am going to register a software company named F**k inc. Then i'll sue all the age verification services on net! And i could sue the porn sites too, they use my trademark without permission. The good part is that i won't have to do anything productive. But then Rambus & SCO will sue me, because that is their patented technology (or should i say Buisnes Model) (-:
The owner of the house where I'm presently staying has long enjoyed Spam. He has spam and eggs for breakfast every morning. I tried him on sausage and eggs but he preferred the spam. I've had it with him a few times, it's not bad though I prefer corned beef hash and eggs myself. It's definitely better fried or otherwise cooked than cold out of the can.
Spam is $2.58 locally for a (10 oz.?) can, which says that a lot of people agree with him. That's more expensive than most breakfast meats or canned meats.
Hormel should NOT be abused for this action. They are entirely within their rights, they must defend their trademark or lose it (obligatory example: Aspirin is still a trademark in Canada, but it was lost in the US long ago because the owners didn't defend it to the court's satisfaction.)
As others have noted, Hormel has shown good humor and tolerance in allowing use of the term.
I'd really enjoy it if they used the UCE-spam problem in a TV and Web advertising campaign, it could be hilarious! I'd enjoy a series of humorous "Good Spam, Bad Spam" scenarios, or they could sponsor an online "Geek Coder Spam recipe contest"
No doubt it's generated new awareness of their product. I hope they acquire a new generation of Spam eaters. Go, Hormel!!
Spam is a better geekfood than Twinkies and Jolt. It no doubt qualifies for the Atkins diet, which would be a very good idea for a lot of overweight sedentary geeks. Go, buy a can, microwave a slice! Support Hormel for their good humor, and dump those "freedom fries".
It's easier to be a result of the past, but more fun to be a cause of the future! http://www.spacefinancegroup.com/
When you think about spam (in the electronic sense), what is it really? Yes, that's right, it is Commercial Unsolicited Mail. Now think about that...
If we were to use a traditional acronym, we would get C.U.M. I'm really not fond of the idea of complaining to my congressman that my inbox is full C.U.M. I don't want to see people on TV talking about how C.U.M. and the C.U.M'ers that send it are ruining the internet.
Though if Hormel is successful, I suppose we could say "Oh my god! Hormel turned my SPAM into CUM!"
From Seinfeld episode "The Frogger":
.....
ELAINE: Guess what I ate.
GEORGE: An ostrich burger.
ELAINE: No. A $29,000 piece of cake. Peterman got it at The Duke Of Windsor auction. It was the most romantic thing I've ever eaten.
JERRY: How'd it taste?
ELAINE: A little stale.
JERRY: Yeah.
PETERMAN: Do you know what happens to a butter-based frosting after six decades in a poorly ventilated English basement?
ELAINE: Uh, I guess I hadn't--
PETERMAN: Well, I have a feeling that what you are about to go through is punishment enough. Dismissed.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
> Delta(TM) can be an airline and an unrelated Delta(TM) can sell faucets.
:(
Sheeesh. Now they tell me. I've been afraid to get a Delta faucet. I've been worried it would crash and take out the neighborhood.
http://www.spam.com/ci/ci_in.htm
I really can't see any reasonable judge declaring that spam cannot be used to refer to unsolicited emails, nor can I see a judge declaring that Hormel has lost it's trademark.
The usages are just too different. My guess is that SpamArrest will be permitted it's usage as long as they stay out of the foodstuffs business, and that Hormell will retain its trademark on Spam (Spiced Pork and hAM) as a foodstuff.
Lawyers get paid, SpamArrest vindicated, Hormel's rights to thier product name protected, no big deal.
This in no way resembles past trademark suits such as Xerox for copying, Kleenex for tissue paper, or Rollerblades for in-line skates.
Then again, IANAL.
Read, L
i cast you back to hell demon
(rofl)
Jello and velvetta also are listed.
I'm off to velvetta the newsgroups....
This not only pisses off Hormel but real people to, and Yes Spamer is my real surname
So call this junk email what it really is. Unsolicited commercial email (UCE) or Unsolicited bulk email (UBE).
What can I say only in the Us ?
I actually remember something about that we all was granted the use of the word spam if spelled SPAM,
A producer of spam (Tulip ) in don't looks to mind the free ads
I'm not a user of spam or SPAM but I will get offended if cans of spam start blocking my
e-mail server
I just hate bit SPAM, (www.netnoise.com.kh)
Margarine? Instant Coffee? War rationing has a lot to answer for...
IANAL, but, IIRC, trademarks can collide among registrants if the mark in question is for completely different areas of business.
SpamArrest is not in the food business, so there would be no confusion among consumers about who owns what they were buying.
First of all, the word "spam" has been used for BS email for how long? and they are just now saying something?
I think there should be some sort of time limit on this crap, everyone is so damn lawsuite happy anymore.
Second, spam sucks, no matter if its the junk email or the fake meat. spam mail kills servers, spam "meat?" kills people.
We have seen that living things are too improbable and too beautifully "designed" to have come into existence by chance.
Isn't that the generic version of Spam (for people who've hit the skids so badly they can't even afford Spam)?
Check your grocery store shelves.
i live in Austin, Minnesota and people sure as hell love their spam. I'd guess that 80% of the 24,000 people here own a SPAM t-shirt. We have the spam museum......and people actually go to it. One time i was hanging around the local computer shop and said "My inbox is full of spam" and people got offended. True story.
Wifey and I to hawaii for our honeymoon. The McDonalds there had a breakfast spam meal. We were curious, but decided against it.
Spam has some very beneficial uses, in fact I have the montey python mp3 linked on my desktop incase a telemarketer calls. When they ask for the man of the house I ask them to hold and place the phone by my speaker. I've only done it twice but the last time I would pick the phone up and ask "Did he pick up yet? no, gosh i'll find him for you" and set it down, almost had him listen to the whole thing, dont know how long the first person stayed. I should record the conversation on the answering machine. Another great tactic if you dont have the clip handy is just start screaming into the air SPAM! while they are making their pitch, dont yell into their ears its more fun to listen to them crack up during their speech.
And by the way, good job honeywell! you'll rights to the spam trademark when this is over.
Maybe if all those companies changed the "spam" part of their names to "spem"? Looks too much like "sperm", maybe, but it's kind of nice that it shares some letters with e-mail.
spim? spom? spum?
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
sigh, at least it wasn't "insightful"
Okay, first, there's no "judge". The article (obliquely) refers to the fact that Hormel is trying to cancel Spam Arrest's trademark applications. See, for instance, this record at the USPTO's Trademark Trial and Appeal Board. These are administrative hearings with a panel and are not binding on any federal court. They are merely binding on the USPTO's own registration process.
Second, people are misunderstanding genericism. The key is whether the term at issue is generic for the goods or services for which the term is registered. Thus, you can't register PENCIL for pencils, but you sure can for vacuum cleaners. Whether the term is generic for other goods and services is not strictly relevant- one of the strongest trademarks in the world for beverages happens to be generic for the residue of coal left after destructive distillation. You all hear stories about THERMOS becoming generic for thermally-insulated bottles though failure to educate the public that THERMOS was a brand of thermally-insulated bottles, but now you're talking about the equivalent of astronomer's frequent references to exploding stars rendering a car brand generic- it just doesn't work that way.
Hormel should have enforced their trademark much earler to stop the alternative usage of the word
This line of thought is also way off for the same kind of reasons. When exactly did Hormel begin allowing use of the term SPAM by others to distinguish the source of goods or services? When did they begin ignore use of the term SPAM for *any item purchasable by a consumer*? They didn't.
So, nonetheless, I assume someone will persist in believing SPAM has somehow lost trademark significance through reference to unwanted email. Even if this were the case, it's yet another argument in favor of cancelling Spam Arrest's trademark registrations- Spam Arrest certainly use a generic term in their name if either of the parties do.
I can't believe Hormel will have any trouble convincing the TTAB that their mark is famous and entitled to a wide berth on the trademark register. Too well known, too well enforced, too long a period of time in use....
We've had refrigerators and coffee pots already. Now that you've mentioned it here, it's only a matter of time.
--
But then again I thought VCR+ was a stupid idea and would die a quick death--so what do I know?
Because parts is parts.
Fight Spammers!
Don't worry. You'll be(TM) just fine(TM) so long as you re(TM)me(TM)mbe(TM)r to de(TM)note(TM) the(TM) fact that it's trade(TM)marke(TM)d. Se(TM)e(TM)? Isn't that e(TM)asy? The(TM)re(TM)'s no ne(TM)e(TM)d to re(TM)nde(TM)r me(TM)ssage(TM)s ille(TM)gible(TM) by de(TM)le(TM)ting le(TM)tte(TM)rs.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
If you regularly defend your trademark, as Hormel has been doing, then it cannot be used in "unrelated" fields. If you choose not to defend your trademark because you don't feel it's an issue, it becomes much harder to defend the next time.
Sometimes companies will come to an agreement to "share" a trademark name and use other means of distinguishing their products (logo, font, color, etc.) The agreement between Apple computers and Apple records many years ago is a good example. (Though I wonder how that holds together now, as Apple computer is clearly into the music distribution now.)
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
I don't know that attempting to defend the trademark is enough - I think you have to be somewhat successful. Heck, while the case hasn't happened yet, Apple is going after the Open Group to de-trademark Unix (TM) - and they've rigorously defended that. Doesn't mean Apple will win, but they must have at least some case or I doubt they'd bother. I imagine that Hormel has a much worse case than the Open Group, too, as when someone says "spam" people tend not to hear "potted meat" anymore.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
It is important to note that overconsumption of SPAM will inevitably lead to cardiac arrest. And this condition could become known as a SpamArrest. This medial term, IMHO should not be reserved by a software company, but should be availiable for its proper medical application.
Hormel, however would be wise to let the co. have the name, to avoid heart attacks being associated with their meat.
Patent: from Latin patere, to be open
Geez, if you had to read that in PC World to know about it....
I did. By that logic, however, assuming the anti-UCE company trademarks SpamArrest and not SPAMarrest, they should be in the clear. So by that count alone, Hormel wouldn't have much ground. I would therefore assume they have another argument, or else their own comments from the link you provide would get them laughed out of court.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
I don't know why but all of a sudden I feel like going out to buy a can of SPAM.
Bet this
Keep it simple-- I dunno exactly what you can get across the Pond (assuming I've guessed your location right), but I like to slice the stuff fairly thin, fry it up until it's just a tad crispy on the outside (and sometimes until it's fairly black), and put it between two slices of plain, white bread-- one spread with yellow mustard, the other spread with mayonnaise.
Add a slice of American cheese (preferably the Kraft individually-wrapped slices), or whatever kind you prefer.
You can get quite a stack of sandwiches out of a single can, if you slice it thinly enough.
How the hell can anyone even call this meat like? I don't eat any meat of this consistency. More like meat derivative
SPAM = d/dx * meat/ln(0.866)
Only slightly better for you:
Grill Spam slices on the GLLMFRGM (or fry in a pan) and then serve as a sandwich on toasted bread with mayo and a slice of american or velveeta cheese melted on it.
Ahhhh, college... the last time I could eat *that* with a straight face!
"Lawyers are for sucks."
- Doug McKenzie
I thought I would update everyone after having done some SPAM research.
The UK SPAM site is here. They don't have as much merchandise available as the US site, but it's easier to get if you're in the UK.
They have a fanclub! I signed up for it with my real address so that I could get SPAM spam! Is that cool or what?
Another thing I found on there is that in the 1940s there was an advert in the US with a song:
"SPAM®, SPAM®, SPAM®, SPAM®;
Hormel's new miracle meat in a can;
Taste fine, saves time;
If you want something grand; ask for SPAM®."
Could this be the inspiration for the Monty Python sketch????
graspee
... people registered trademarks for their products... actually, a trademark isn't required, but... it is usefull, because it established a "link" between a brand and a business area, will, if not trademarked, the link isn't established...
BUT does both parties have trademarks for the same class???
If they have, then... ***BOOMMM*** (someone goofed hehehehe)...
Our product isn't called 'Spam Arrest'.
It's called 'Spa - Mar - Rest'. Cleans those nasty heelmarks off your Jacuzzi - like magic!
Everyone will start to cheer when you put on your sailin' shoes.
It's hard to see how Hormel could claim ownership of SPAM for every possible industry classification anyway. Normally a trademark is tied to a particular type of product.
Hormel should go out and sue as many spammers as they can (SCO style) for ruining their trademark. This is one lawsuit I would support!
-- I am. Therefore, I think!
IANAL, and someone probably brought it up already, but since spam-mail filtering and pork/meat-like products manufacturing are two separate, non-related industries, isn't the trademarking a mutually used word irrelevant? For example, McDonald's wouldn't be able to sue if some guy in Akron decided to open a McDonald's Happy Land of Lingerie.
There are a huge number of yeast infections in this county. Probably because we're downriver from the bread factory.
So essentially corporate America lobbied for tougher "intellectual property rights" to screw us and it screwed them, I hate spam but I think ill buy a truckload.
By some coincidence I listedned to a Wierd Al CD this morning, and now have:
Spam in the place where I live (have some more)
Think about addiction, wonder if I'm a junkie now (let's eat)
Spam in the place where I work (you're obsessed)
Think about the way it's processed, wonder if it's some kind of meat
etc going through my mind...
How about Cholestorally Astute? Or even Extraordinarily Cholestorally Gifted?
I mean, I would think that the Cholestorally Challenged would appreciate Spam in all its cholestoral-ly goodness.
Any sufficiently well-organized Government is indistinguishable from bullshit.
Spamarrest - are these the punk-ass jerks who were spamming people to get them to sign up for their "anti-spam" service? Seems to me they're nothing but a bunch of corporate vermin who are trying to corner a new market - and trying to trademark a term graciously allowed by Hormel, and used by their potential competitors seems like another cheap dirty trick, in the same vein as SCO and Enron.
We should be applauding Hormel in defending SPAM as a trademark for their meat product, and thereby defending spam as a generic term for UCE. If we let Spamarrest co-opt the term, lord knows what they'll do with it.
I would be mad if I were Hormel. SPAM is trademarked by them and everyone uses the name for junk e-mail. Which is exactly what it should be called. We call the mail in our mailboxes "Junk Mail" so just call it "Junk E-mail".
Kenneth Daigneau - Who played a role on a soap opera which was entitled Stella Dallas, it ran on NBC from 1937-1955, and starred Vivian Smolen, Anne Elstner, and Jane Houston (cast shown in photo to the left). It aired for only 15 minutes a day (at 12:30 pm until 1938, when it was changed to 4:15 pm), and was, according to its opening?..?a continuation on the air of the true life story of mother love and sacrifice, in which Stella Dallas saw her own beloved daughter, Laurel, marry into wealth and society and realizing the difference in their tastes and worlds, went out of Laurel?s life?. ?Lolly Baby? was Stella?s nickname for her daughter.
"It's so convenient to have a system where everyone is a criminal" - A. Hitler
On its Web site, Hormel states that it does not object to use of the word spam as a "slang term," as long as pictures of the product are not used with such references.
/. icon be infringing on this.
Wouldn't the
Uh
The judge ruled that a reasonable person was not going to confuse a canned meat product with a foam rubber hand puppet.
:-D
Did the judge also rule on which tasted better?
--- I wish I could hear the soundtrack to my life. That way I'd know when to duck.
verbs don't begin with a capital.
If you write 'spam' you mean annoying email.
If you write 'Spam' with a capital, you are refering to a product.
Hormel can win and force us to rename that unwanted scourge of email junk to something else but it will not change the fact that I'd never eat that damned canned meat if it were the last or only meat available on the earth...
Vegan diet here I come - pass the beans and rice... or at extremes Soylent Green I suppose but that's essentially the same as Spam isn't it?
So, you want to endanger your product? I will no longer purchase or recommend the purchase of your products to anyone I know Now if enough people do this we really will endanger their product
GirlFriend's Luscious Mammaries For Rousing GentleMen?
You can't cook meat on meat!
Skevin
"Twice half-assed makes an ass whole." --Solomon K. Chang
I recall often hearing the term in the mid eighties in our local university's computer lab. People who would spool their print jobs over and over again because they hadn't printed yet were said to be "Spamming the que". Also, overloading a buffer, particulary when repeating commands over and over because your terminal hadn't gotten any feedback, and watching as the past dozen or so commands input registerd all at once was called "spam in the buffer".
I thought it was pointing to what spam might do to your bodily processes like arteries and bowels, block things up 'til they start causing problems.
In that case I think Spam is a good metaphor.
-dameron
Spam Arrest doesn't have anything in their product resembling meat...oh...I see Hormel's point.
All sigs should be as funny as possible, but no funnier.
I bet Hormel will be really pissed to lose it.
I wonder what Honeywell will use the trademark for? It's new line of communications satellite's? I mean, it makes sense since 90% of the traffic that goes through them will be spam anyways.
Since Honeywell will get the spam trademark, I wonder what Hormel will rename its Spam product to. Maybe they'll get honest (and wordy) in the name, and call it "A somewhat near meat product that tastes like a mix of Pork and shoe polish".
I never thought I'd be so interested at the outcome of a Spam trademark infringement dispute, but you pull the aerospace industry into it, and you've got my attention!
Beware blue cats moving at
this is why i bought kroger-brand chili today rather than hormel. cheaper, same taste, and i know that extra 30 cents is in my pocket rather than going to some lawyers!
Berto
First, let me state that I'm sure Hormel doesn't mind being associated with UCE if it's pornographic UCE, especially gay kiddie porn, as they have already publicly done so with the San Francisco-based Hormel Library.
I suggest that we continue to call all unwanted email SPAM (make sure we get the case right, so as to match the way they describe their trademark), and good mail can be called Treet. Treet is just as good as SPAM, and none of the proceeds go towards the promotion of child molestation.
Let them stop products from using the name, while casual conversation, which is not bound by copyright law, specifically associates them with bad things, in comparison to their competitors. I don't care if James Hormel wants to get sexual gratifaction with another man. By the time somebody's grown up, if that's what they like, it's sad, but not as sad as denying them the right to love who they love. It's his predilection for young boys, and particularly his work to legitimize that pathological condition, that removes him from the ranks of humanity.
doh!
That last paragraph made no sense... daydreaming about hawaii I guess, well 2/3 isn't bad I guess. I actually meant to imply that HORMEL will LOSE its trademark because I think it will be considered a household name after this. Would honeywell be able to defend the name better? bah, when pigs fly...
Hormel has been remarkably tolerant of the use of their product name to refer to junk email. I think it behooves those of us fighting junk email to avoid abusing their good will.
I hope Hormel doesn't pay for their tolerance by losing their trademark they way Aspirin did.
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
is that people actually still buy the Hormel version of spam.
Have you ever eaten this nasty shit???
Damn! When I was in Boy Scouts we went on a 30 day campout and we had to eat that shit every day. Damn! That was nasty. I would rather eat a pound of pig shit than a can of spam.
I can't imagine where anyone get's off calling that shit a food product...
mod me down as flamebait if you like but it's true. Buy a can and see for yourself.
And DO NOT READ THE CONTENTS LABEL before you eat it. Read the label AFTER you eat it...
Trust me..
that this is just a publicity stunt by the Hormel people...
Either that or they truly are morons...
Or both...
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
This excerpt was taken from the page of a law firm which handles trademark issues:
Trademarks and Service Marks: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em
"What is the ultimate price a company can pay for using its marks incorrectly, and allowing others to also use the marks incorrectly?
The mark may be determined to be the generic name of the goods or services. If a mark "goes generic", anyone can use it. Despite years of marketing efforts and expense, you will not be able to prevent someone else from using the term. Sound farfetched? Escalator used to be the brand name for a particular company's moving stairway. Shredded wheat, yo-yo, thermos, aspirin and cellophane are all generic terms that once were company trademarks. Sony, owner of the trademark "Walkman", recently had a court in the United Kingdom determine that "walkman" was a generic term."
I am not a lawyer, but one could certainly make the case that Hormel has not been diligent in protecting their "SPAM" trademark. Many people now associate the term with unsolicited e-mail and thus, the term has become generic even though it is largely used to refer to unwholesome e-mail now instead of unwholesome meat products. This case is interesting because usually when a term becomes generic it has been used to refer to generic things which are similar to or a close substitute for the things that were originally trademarked, as in the aforementioned excerpt: aspirin, escalator, thermos, etc.
This excerpt was taken from the page of a law firm which handles trademark issues:
Trademarks and Service Marks: Use 'Em or Lose 'Em
"What is the ultimate price a company can pay for using its marks incorrectly, and allowing others to also use the marks incorrectly?
The mark may be determined to be the generic name of the goods or services. If a mark "goes generic", anyone can use it. Despite years of marketing efforts and expense, you will not be able to prevent someone else from using the term. Sound farfetched? Escalator used to be the brand name for a particular company's moving stairway. Shredded wheat, yo-yo, thermos, aspirin and cellophane are all generic terms that once were company trademarks. Sony, owner of the trademark "Walkman", recently had a court in the United Kingdom determine that "walkman" was a generic term."
I am not a lawyer, but one could certainly make the case that Hormel has not been diligent in protecting their "SPAM" trademark. Many people now associate the term with unsolicited e-mail and thus, the term has become generic even though it is largely used to refer to unwholesome e-mail now instead of unwholesome meat products. This case is interesting because usually when a term becomes generic it has been used to refer to generic things which are similar to or a close substitute for the things that were originally trademarked, as in the aforementioned excerpt: aspirin, escalator, thermos, etc.
Funny how they waited this long before deciding to sue ... Let's let everyone use the term for a while and then get used to it as being a common term ... then, BAM! Hit em' with the old Amazon trick!
Potted Meat is the tripe that the Spam factory didn't want to use. yum yum.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Landsharks
Deltron 3030 - Virus (music video)
The incident you refer to was during the run of "Muppets Tonight" (95/96) There was a "Baywatch" parody called "Bay of Pigs Watch" and an actress by the name of "Spamala Hamderson"
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
I know what you meant, just having a little fun. I think it would be pretty cool to see what Honeywell would do with the SPAM trademark.
I think Honeywell could probably defend the name better than Hormel. Maybe not in a court of law, but they do make weapon systems... they might have some inventive ways of literally "defending" their trademarks.
I think I just realized why you never hear of trademark lawsuits coming from weapons manufacturers. Nobody wants to mess with a company that has the latest greatest top secret weapon in their closet that they've been building for Uncle Sam. It adds a new level to FUD tactics. Fear of a company who can blow you to smitheriens, Uncertainty of the continuation of your mortal life if you mess with them, and Doubt your stock options are worth the risk of dying.
Beware blue cats moving at
You were able to eat with a straight face in college? Must not have been having enough fun. I was always grinning ear to ear when I ate spam.
Hormel officials did not return several messages Monday seeking comment. On its Web site, Hormel states that it does not object to use of the word spam as a "slang term," as long as pictures of the product are not used with such references.
Isn't there a slashdot icon with a spam can?
that the public will confuse the email filter SpamArrest with what your heart goes into after eating too much of their meat-like product.
OB Disclosure: I like Spam.
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
If I didn't believe Hormel's claims as to the ingredients of SPAM luncheon meat, I'd get a lawyer and take Hormel to court for false labeling of ingredients.
Will I retire or break 10K?
I've read that Jim Carrey managed to mate a bulldog with a shih tzu. He called it a "bullshit".
Will I retire or break 10K?
The answer to this is simple. You can argue all you want about the word 'spam' being used as a generic term, but you cannot commercially use it for *anything*.
IANAL, but this is communications law 101. Think about "Jeep" and you can see cases for both a generic slang term AND a trademarked term. In general terms you can argue that it refers to an all-terrain vehicle shaped in a certain way. This came from the military's "General Purpose" vehicles, for which the shortened term was "GP" or "jeep." This was a slang generic term for that type of vehicle.
General Motors (or is it Daimler-Chrysler) began manufacturing cars under a trademarked brand name "Jeep." Now vehicles like that are a dime a dozen from several different manufacturers. But, they are "SUVs," not Jeeps, because "Jeep" is a registered trademark.