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."

Comments

HEADLINE WRONG - RTFA

[wowbagger]

No, Hormel is not suing Spamarrest over their name.

Hormel is opposing Spamarrest's attempt to TRADEMARK "Spamarrest".

It is clearly stated in the article. The /. editors did not read the article, just the submission, which was TOTALLY WRONG!

Hormel has been pretty damn cool about the whole "spam as email/SPAM as meat" thing - go look at their web page about it.

Re:To late foo!

[aborchers]

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.

Etymology

[Scurrility Extempore]

For anyone interested on how Spam (the meat product) got its name, here's an excerpt from an ABCNEWS article about it:

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.

Re:but it's not

[Fishstick]

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.

Re:Good reputation?

[Talking Goat]

It's actually very funny... Hormel has been quite adamant about defending its SPAM(TM) for years, as I've noticed from reading some certain trade publications.

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:

5. Trademark Information. The following trademarks used or which are planned to be used in this site, whether registered or unregistered, are owned by Hormel Foods: SPAM; HORMEL; SPAMBURGER; SPAMTASTIC and any other SPAM-derived terms.

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?

NPR Story with interview with Spamarrest CEO

[mathin]

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.