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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."
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
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!
For the love of SPAM
Oh my...
The unofficial
I thikn you are correct. They even published a statement some years ago saying they were giving up on trying to change. The rationale being that most people knew and were aware of the distinction.
m l
Slashdot story on their statement:
http://slashdot.org/articles/01/05/29/0117200.sht
The One Rule Of Chess You'll Ever Need: Don't play someone who carries a kit in their bookbag.
Actually some time ago, I think they did attempt to sue over the use of the word SPAM..
I would think that the previous outcome would have some kind of effect on this.
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
Not only that, they have historically actively encouraged the use of their name for UCE. I have read numerous articles in which Hormel representatives said it was fine with them and they even had a good humour about it. They even took the trouble to put up this website clarifying their position. They said as long as the name is not in all caps and their product image is not used, they do not care.
RTA. They are opposing an attempt to trademark a name containing their registered trademark. Considering the typically litigious nature of other companies and Hormel's relative tolerance of the use of the generic term "spam", I hardly think they should be cast as the bad guy for opposing someone else trademarking a name containing theirs.
Trouble making decisions? Just flip for it.
Hasn't SPAM been put into the Dictionary?
Yes, it has been added
"Some things have to be believed to be seen." - Ralph Hodgson
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.
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
Nah, we avoid the stuff like the plague too...
I hear it's treated with reverence in Hawaii for some reason...
Everybody dies frustrated and sad and that is beautiful
according to the wikipedia:
SPAM is a canned meat product made by the Hormel Foods Corporation company that has entered into folklore. SPAM luncheon meat is also used as an artistic medium in SPAM carving contests.
The labeled ingredients on the original SPAM are chopped pork shoulder meat with ham meat added, salt, water, sugar and sodium nitrite.
A Hormel official once stated that the original source of the name SPAM was "Shoulder of Pork And haM".
I seem to recall that the story was that the shoulder meat was being discarded/wasted and that the owner wanted to do something with it. He had the idea for 'canned luncheon meat' and the army picked it up and the rest is history.
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
Just one link gets lots of other links.
Spam Links Elsewhere
Have fun Hormel! Bring on the litigious SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM...
I've flipped through a few magazines marketed towards aspiring fiction writers, and these publications are littered with advertisements by companies demanding that writers reference their products correctly in any works produced. I specifically remember an ad by Hormel requesting that writers refer to Spam as "Hormel Foods Brand SPAM Luncheon Meat" anytime one would want to refer to it in some sort of work of literature.
Also, from the Spam.com Legal and Copyright Info page, I found this hilarious little bit: So if I make up the word "SpamWhore", well, it's owned by Hormel Foods, and should have been spelled SPAMWHORE. Even though they've never registered it. Too funny.
When does fair use ever come to the mind of a corporation?
+ G to tha Izzo, A to tha Tizee, Talking Giz-oat, Ya'll Bettah Feel Me... +
Ok, enough! SPAM is not just "meat like." It's meat! Not the best parts I'll admit, but calling it a non-meat is just wrong.
Ingredients of SPAM (from the SPAM FAQ):
Dude, anyone can sue anyone. That doesn't mean the legal system is bad, or people or corporations are any more nuts. Before then people just hit each other over the head with clubs.
Any company that holds a trademark *must* actively protect their mark from dilution through other commercial uses of their name or else they run the risk of losing their trademark. It's not necessarily that Hormel wants to do this but they may have to in order to secure the integrity of their product brand. I wonder why it took them so long in the first place?
Let's start calling spam "Coke" and see how long it takes before that company starts calling.
Yes, I believe the source of the joke was because during WWII meat was hard to come by in the UK -- so a lot of spam was eaten, and hated, hence making it funny to people who were children during that time, especially when sung by vikings.
I'm sorry, it was Apple, not Amiga(article from Computer Product News)...
** Who's a 'Butthead'? **
It all started when famed scientist Carl Sagan reportedly complained to Apple Computer Inc. that he didn't appreciated his name being borrowed as the internal code name for a new Apple computer. Reports say that after receiving the complaint, Apple changed the internal code name of the upcoming model from "Carl Sagan" to "Butt-Head Astronomer." Sagan supposedly asked the company to stop using his name after an article about the new model appeared in MacWEEK magazine. Reportedly, the Butt-Head Astronomer system -- well, "BHA" for short -- is one of three Apple models to use the PowerPC microprocessor developed by Apple, Motorola Inc. and IBM.
Spam is indeed quite popular not only in Hawaii, but throughout the Pacific islands.
Importing food to Hawaii, Micronesia, etc...
It also doesn't hurt that pork is a very traditional food in Polynesian culture. It is usually slow roasted in a pit for a whole day. The result is a very tender juicy meat that is not entirely unlike spam (Although 100,000 times better, IMO.)
In slang terms it may be used quite freely as a generic term. However, as a product or service its a different story. A good example of this is jello. It is very often used as a slang term instead of gelatin. Unfortunately, as the rock band "Green Jello" found out, outside of slang usage, companies can and will enforce their trademark. The band was required to change their name and went to "Green Gelatin" instead.
All ham is pork (ignoring turkey "ham" for the moment, since that's just a chunk of turkey flavored like smoked/cured ham), but not all pork is ham. A ham is a hind leg of a pig (or is cut from it). It's usually cured and smoked, but fresh ham isn't. Other cuts have other names (ribs, bacon, etc.).
20 January 2017: the End of an Error.
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
If people had read the article on their website regarding use of their tradmark name SPAM, they would also realise how reasonable the company has been [or had to be :) .]
Corporation, n. An ingenious device for obtaining individual profit without individual responsibility. - Ambrose Bierce
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.
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...
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.
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.
what you're referring to is one mailing that they did in FEBRUARY. They haven't done it yet. Big deal, everyone wants to market their company as best that they can, these guys made a mistake, apologized, and aren't doing it again.
that's good enough for me.
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-).
Back in college we used to eat Spam and Government cheese with Frenches yellow mustard on Wonder bread... But then we also made a regular habit of drinking ourselves into oblivion so I'm not sure how good of an example this is... Haven't touched any of the above ingredients since, although I actually liked the cheese.
I wouldn't say I'm a bad gambler but the last time I went to Vegas I even lost a buck on the soda machine.
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....
OMFG! A Talking Goat. Like there are not enough human idiots here on Slashdot. Read your own quote, stupid! "...trademarks used... in this site... are owned by Hormel Foods: ... any... SPAM-derived terms...". So if you see SPAMWHORE on Hormel's site, be advised that this is most probably their trademark. The reason is that they are talking about THEIR PRODUCTS on this site, and I guess they would register a trademark before introducing the product on the market and discussing it on the site.
So if you make up the word SPAMSTUPIDTALKINGGOAT, it is unlikely to be used on spam.com.
When does thinking before posting ever come to the mind of an average Slashdot reader?
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
Jesus H. SPAM... it wasn't that long ago... amazing how the story changes.
Sagan took umbrage with Apple's use of his name on one of the three original PowerPC 601-based Macintoshes in 1994. The pizza-box 6100/60 was Piltdown Man, the 8100/80 was Cold Fusion, and the 7100/66 was Carl Sagan.
Piltdown Man was a hoax; a set of fossils discovered in Britain purported to be a missing link between apes and humans, but later exposed as a fraud. Five years before the advent of PowerMacs, two university of Utah chemists announced that they had achieved nuclear fusion at room temperatures, promising a radical upheaval to the way we think about energy. That was a hoax, too. Carl Sagan, seeing the company with which irreverant Apple engineers had placed him, complained.
That wasn't the end though, as Apple spitefully changed the code name of the 7100/66 to "BHA," which reputedly stood for "Butt-Head Astronomer." Sagan sued for defamation of character. A federal judge ruled that Apple's use of the name was not defamatory, but Sagan appealed. They later settled out of court.
Sometime in the midst of the ruckus, the code name of the 7100/66 was changed to "LAW" which stood for "Lawyers are Wimps."
How do I know this? I used to be a college student with nothing but time and a PowerMac 7100/66 with dorm room ethernet. But seriously, google for "carl sagan apple code name."
I remember that... but didn't they change to "Green Jelly"?
I actually remember seeing one of their album covers at a radio station prior to the name change... kind of interesting....
Karnal