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Spam Lawsuit's Last Laugh is at Hormel's Expense
Brian Cartmell writes "An article at the Minneapolis — StarTribune site covers a significant setback for the Hormel food company, in a case that's being closely watched by security companies across the country. Seattle-based Spam Arrest has gone up against the creator of the food substance in court, fighting for the right to use the word spam in its company name. The US Trademark Trial and Appeal board has sided with the spam fighters, agreeing that consumers of the Spam product would never confuse the food with junk email. 'Derek Newman, Spam Arrest's attorney, said the decision opens the door for many other anti-spam software companies ... "Spam Arrest fought this battle for the whole software industry," Newman said.'"
Too bad they spam people who use their service or email their customers: http://www.politechbot.com/p-04457.html
I've heard it's from the Monty Python "Spam" sketch, but I've also heard it's a British thing from WWII - "Spam - everybody gets it, nobody wants it." - Does anybody have a definitive origin? Like the bug in Grace Hoppers log book?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
I wonder if anti drug groups at some point had to fight the same trademark battle with Coke (and lost, since I don't think any anti drug groups today have the word 'Coke' in them)? Of course the Coke (tm) name is actually historically associated with the coca plant, unlike SPAM (tm) and its spam counterpart which have no obvious connection except cultural non sequiturism.
i\hbar\dot{\psi}=\hat{H}\psi
IIRC, Slashdot received a c&d to remove the can of spam a while back, but I can't seem to find a link to the story anywhere. Hmph.
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Actually, Spam is considered a delicacy in the Pacific Islands. In Hawaii, you can buy Spam sushi from the manapua man. He's a guy who drives around in an ice cream truck selling pork buns, candy, and spam products. I shit you not. Some claim that the Pacific Islander's spam mania comes from their cannabilistic heritage and Spam's taste resemblance to the other, other white meat. I sort of doubt it, I think it's more of a cargo cult type of thing. Magical meat in a can that never goes bad had to have impressed the heck out of tropical islanders when it first arrived.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Actually most people at Hormel do have a good sense of humor about it. I'm actually from the small town (Austin, Minnesota) where the canned meat is made. They realize they have an odd product that is the butt of a lot of jokes and have gone out of their way to play it up. Just check out their website, a 15 second look around their site should clue you in that they have some sense of humor. http://www.spam.com/
I had to read all the way down to this comment to get someone who knew what the hell they were talking about.
Mod the parent up!
This is indeed a victory for Hormel. Until now, Hormel had to vigorously defend their trademark, or they would lose it.
Now, Hormel has a judge saying that the trademark couldn't be confused when applied to e-mail, and therefore Hormel is relieved of the obligation and expense to defend their trademark with regard to e-mails.
And, if any of you have a memory at all, you'll remember just how cool Hormel has been with regards to their SPAM trademark. They even made it a public policy that as long as you didn't spell spam in all caps (SPAM) then you wouldn't infringe. Hormel's trademark is all capital letters, and they gave their blessing to use of the uncapitalized term spam as applied to e-mails.
Basically, the judge has given Hormel permission to continue to be cool with us regarding their trademark, which is exactly what Hormel wanted.
Hormel is the GOOD guys. Go buy some SPAM to support them today.
No weapon in the arsenals of the world is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men.-Ronald Reagan