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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."
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.
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...
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.
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.
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.
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.
From the site:
This seems like a break from that policy.
>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
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
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"
as i understand, it was short for "spiced ham". but your suggestion seems far more accurate :-)
Spokesdemons for the Devil scoffed at the allegations, saying "Good luck finding an attorney who isn't already on the Dark Lord's retainer."
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)
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.
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 has been sending out Cease and Desist letters pretaining to Spam at least as far back as 1997, and probably earlier. While Spam has long had negative connotations for some, it is also quite popular with others. Spam is very popular in Hawaii. The term has been appropriated by the public for use in an entierly different context, making this much different from trademark fights by Xerox, Kleenex, and Rollerblades to name a few. And, as the article states, "trademark lawyers were skeptical that Hormel could prevail."
bance.net
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
We actually had a "SPAM Acronym" contest one day. The winner, hands down, was:
Some
Po'
Ass
Muthafucka'
In Soviet Russia, Chuck Norris will still kick your ass.
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.
Regardless, trademarks must be "vigorously defended" or they slip into the public domain. This may just be an attempt on the part of Hormel to ensure that SPAM does not slip into the public domain.
-- Rich
Free your mind and your Ass will follow -- George Clinton
Start calling unsolicited commercial email Firebird.
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.
Ok dude, you expect me to believe that there is some magical animal that contains both pork and ham?
I suppose next you'll be telling me that pork is bacon too?
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.
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.
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.
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.
Maybe we could re-coin "spam" something like "litigious sh*tloaf".
- First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then ???, then profit.
I heard SPiced hAM. I still hate it. Down with Bully Beef!
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
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.
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...
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.
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
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).
-AnthonyPeople 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.
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.
isnt-that-horse department?
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.
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....
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").
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.
Not all ham is pork. Not all pork is ham.
The hams are the thighs. And not only of pigs, though that's how it's commonly used these days. It's associated with the word "hamstrings".
Turkey ham, if those are indeed the thighs of the turkey, is a correct, but strange, usage. The flavoring of the turkey ham to mimic that of the pork ham is valuable for sales, but linguistically unnecessary.
OTOH, I've only heard the lower leg called the drumstick on chickens and turkeys. I think it's normally called the shank, but that may not distinguish between the fore and hind legs.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.