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EU Rejects Spam Maker's Trademark Bid
kog777 writes "The producer of the canned pork product Spam has lost a bid to claim the word as a trademark for unsolicited e-mails. EU trademark officials rejected Hormel Foods Corp.'s appeal, dealing the company another setback in its struggle to prevent software companies from using the word 'spam' in their products, a practice it argued was diluting its brand name. The European Office of Trade Marks and Designs, noting that the vast majority of the hits yielded by a Google search for the word made no reference to the food, said that 'the most evident meaning of the term SPAM for the consumers ... will certainly be unsolicited, usually commercial e-mail, rather than a designation for canned spicy ham.'"
Are we really using Google to decide such matters? What else could Google decide for us?
...damn vikings.
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SPAM search
And what is the first item listed, you ask? Why WWW.SPAM.COM - From Hormel Foods Corporation. Includes history, fan club, and facts. I'm pretty sure Hormel has had to fork over a lot of money to keep them at the top of any search for SPAM, to keep the trademark from being wiped away.
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The next time someone bitches about Apple protecting their iPod trademark, I'm just going to forward them a link to this article.
Actually, Hormel should thank them. Monty Python and the first person to use the word "spam" to describe bulk e-mail probably did more to make Hormel's canned meat product known to the world than anyone else.
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is usually crucified.
the most evident meaning of the term SPAM for the consumers ... will certainly be unsolicited, usually commercial e-mail, rather than a designation for canned spicy ham.
I just want to know how to order breakfast correctly. The last time I asked for Spam spam spam spam spam spam ham eggs spam spam spam bacon and spam, I got 6 advertisements for Viagra and Cialis, 3 pleas for extraditing Nigerian capital, an offer to augment my anatomy and blueberry pancakes served with Raspberry syrup and 2 raw quail eggs.
Please help!!
Sincerely,
A Sad Spam Solicitor
"Ultimately, we are trying to avoid the day when the consuming public asks, 'Why would Hormel Foods name its product after junk e-mail?'"
- see-into-other-areas chose to name their product after Microsoft's Operating System?
These would be the same people that will ask why makers of glass-that-fits-into-buildings-to-allow-people-to
Get a grip, Hormel.
Summation 2
that most people do not associate the term spam with the spicy canned meat? I think we are still far away from that actually occurring. They may have a point internationally. However, the term "spam" is still strongly associated with both unsolicited email and the ham product in most English speaking person's minds. That google has more hits for uncolicited email is irrelevant. Nevertheless, I do not think Hormel's mark has been diluted because this use is so completely different that has no real affect on its product.
Based on the judge's comments from the article, the reason Hormel is being denied its claim of trademark dilution is that their trademark is diluted?
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Hormal Foods created this word in 1937. This would be like telling Xerox that their name can be used somewhere else. While Xerox may be commonly used for any copy machine, Xerox still owns the trademark and other companies cannot put Xerox on their product. The same goes for Kleenex, Coca-Cola (in fact coke invented the word cola, and only lost the trademark due to failing to defend it). This is a crappy ruling.
Well I guess the Coca-Cola Corp now know where they stand should they wish to persue a line in "other" products called coke....
since when did Spam become spicy? i've always been aware of its' tempting ham/chicken/various pork products goodness...and who can deny the succulent self juices that the log o' love is wallowing in? i'll never forget that summer when me and young becky atkins had our first taste of the forbidden half-ham/half-buffalo/half-emu pork product...the slimy, meat jello sliding down our chins in the summer sun... but i regress... spam is not spicy, unless you dress it up in something hot and sexy!
You've got a serious case of patent == copyright == trademark.
They are not all the same.
The SCO/IBM case is (mainly) about copyright.
The Transmeta/Intel case is about patents.
Hormel's case is about a trademark.
Besides, has Hormel really actively protected their trademark ever since people started using the word "Spam" for unsolicited e-mail? I've only heard about them doing so for the last two, or perhaps three, years.
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Trademarks are a form of consumer protection. They allow you to buy Kellogg's Corn Flakes and get the product you are expecting, from the maker you presume to make it. The only real corporate protection is relatively incidental, being that it prevents competing and equivalent products from imitating the genuine article. So you have two purposes at work: consumer protection from confusion, and corporate protection from unfair competition arising from imitation.
Does SPAM referring to "unsolicited email" confuse consumers, or misrepresent the corporate's product to unfairly compete? In this case the SPAM trademark applies to a canned meat product. The term is also in general use to refer to unsolicited email. They are separate industries, and consumers are unlikely to confuse unsolicited email with a canned meat product. Similarly, there are no concerns over unfair competition by imitation. Thus there is little harm to the consumer, nor a real concern to the corporation.
Further, the SPAM trademark owners let the term become diluted over the years to the point where it is commonly accepted; had they intervened a decade ago, their arguments would have been stronger. They are likely statutorily obligated to actively protect their trademark rights. Even if not a statutory obligation, failing to protect their rights is prejudicial in the eyes of most courts.
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You can understand why the company puts in so much effort to protect the good name though. After all Spam (Scattered Parts of Anonymous Mammals) is important to many people. Both Hawaii and Alaska love Spam. As has been noted about Alaska:
For more tasty info on the Simulated Pieces of Appalling Mutants see The Amazing and Fabulous Spam Site which includes a 300 DPI Scan of SPAM
a href="
It's funny to see how much effort the company puts into targeting the brand given that Spam is so important to
Spam has been around since 1937. It was one of the few food sources widely available to the British in World War II (which is what Spam was in reference to in the Monty Python sketch Spam). It did just fine for the 33 years before Monty Python's Spam was first broadcast (1970). I highly doubt Monty Python had anything to do with it's popularity, and certainly neither did any internet abuse related use of the word.
I like Spam (the product not the email). Have you ever tried it? It's actually not bad. The term 'spam' for email has absolutely nothing to do with the taste of the product and whether or not people like it, (and from the number of sales and length of time on the market it is apparent that many people do like SPAM).
It has to everything do with the Monty Python skit however. They're the ones (if anyone can be blamed) most responsible for the coining of the phrase. When I first heard the comment 'Spam Email' used, like pretty much all the other net geeks I associated it immediately with the skit, cause it was funny and all us net geeks watched Python.
That the phrase is still in use twenty years later is rather surprising. I don't think anyone knows who the first computer user was to use the term, it's just one of those things that happened. But it has nothing to do with people's like or dislike of the product.
Not yet, it seems. The magic 8 ball is still more popular.
Or Porsche (Portia)?
Perhaps that's where their daughter was conceived?
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Spam (the food) always gets a bad rap, but when cut into patties and fried, I think it's pretty tasty. Haven't had it in a long time, though...
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The parent said
"You would be surprised if I told you how many people I know that make decisions based on the result of a Google Fight."
not
"You would be surprised if I told you how many people I know that make decisions based on the result of a Google."
Pink tender morsel
stuffed inside a little box
What the hell are you?
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