Hormel Back on The Spam Offensive

Anonymous Howard writes "After an xapparent setback in litigation, Hormel Foods is again pursuing actions against entities and organizations over the 'spam' trademark. According to the web site of DSPAM, an open-source statistical anti-spam filter, "Anti-spam software manufacturers may be in for a rude awakening. Hormel Foods Corporation and Hormel Foods LLC have recently filed for extensions to oppose or to cancel many new and existing spam-related trademarks and are even filing a few technology trademarks of their own. The DSPAM project, a popular open source and freely available spam filtering application, has already received two such notices of opposition from the trademark trial and appeal board. The complete history can be viewed here. This came about a year after the software's user community scrounged up the fee to file for a trademark...""

Comments

Tough case

[bigtallmofo]

I understand why Hormel wants to do this. Normally you don't want your product associated with such a negative thing.

But Spam? Of the people that actually enjoy eating it, would anything dissuade them from doing so? I mean, they're eating gelatinous pig parts. They don't seem like very discerning consumers to me.

Re:Trademarks

[kfg]

You are correct, however, things get a bit more complicated when a company takes the trouble to invent a unique word to be their mark.

Exxon, Lexus, Infiniti, etc.

Coining a new word makes the mark stronger, because it begins its life innately attached to the company/product; and nothing else, as opposed to, say, "Bob's Garage."

Standard Oil even went to considerable trouble and expense to make sure their Exxon mark didn't have negative conotations anywhere in the world.

If you look down you'll find that Hormel is actually being rather reasonable about the whole thing, given the situation. They're defending their mark, as they must if they don't wish to loose it, but they really just aren't being dickheads about it. They accept that their mark, a word they invented just to be associated with their product, now has a new and second meaning.

But their concerns that in future people might wonder why they named their potted meat product after junk email are perfectly valid.

KFG

Give Hormel a break

[yotto]

I've always been impressed with the lighthearted (in a legal sense, I'm sure pirvately they're quite pissed about the whole thing) Hormel has been with the use of their product name in such a negative light. I don't think many companies would take such a view. I mean, Microsoft won't even let you market a product whose name SOUNDS like 'Windows.' I think that Hormel's stand in this case is reasonable.
/hates both spam and SPAM.

You misinterpreted the data

[Reziac]

No, that just means that most of the CALORIES are from fat. This is true of most foods that contain any fat (including butter and veg.oils) at all, because fat is the most caloric-dense ingredient.

Fat runs around 170 calories per ounce (vs. something like 60 cal/oz for meat).

So if a 2-ounce serving contains 140 cal. from fat, that means the product is around 20% fat.

Which is about the same as ordinary hamburger.

As to changes over the years, pork itself has become a fairly lean meat, so there is less fat in the average processed pig than there was 30 years ago. But the canning process is rather finicky about what can be in the can and still come out at the desired texture, so it's more likely changes in your tastes with maturity that make it seem different. Lots of kids think many things are gross that these same kids gobble wholeheartedly as adults.

Re:Eeeeewwwww!

[vidarh]

English comedy is only considered bland by those who don't understand it.

Re:Eeeeewwwww!

[Spetiam]

My understanding is that Spam is just a way of selling the fat and scraps that are left after processing other kinds of meat products.

Do you eat hot dogs? What's your understanding of those? :)