Once Again, Hormel's Trademark On Spam Does Not Apply To Email
from the meat-like-substance dept
I thought we had gone through this a few years ago when Hormel lost a trademark lawsuit against an anti-spam company. Hormel, of course, is the maker of SPAM, the meat-like substance. It's had something of a love-hate affair with the use of the word "spam" for email, originally hating it, but later growing to kind of accept it. However, every once in a while it throws up a random trademark lawsuit. Once again, though, a judge has ruled that Hormel's trademark "does not extend to computer software for filtering spam." One would have thought that was obvious from way back when, and especially after it started losing cases on that point -- but, apparently it just couldn't resist the salty taste of yet another failed lawsuit.
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Filed Under: spam, trademarks
Companies: hormel, spam arrest
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Mmm spam
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260188815381
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Re: Mmm spam
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"Meat-like substance"?? C'mon Mike...
Love the Spam(TM).
C'mon everyone, post your favorite Spam(TM) recipes for Mike to try out!
I'll start:
PIG COOKIES
Slice Spam(TM) 1/8th inch thick. Lay on bed of paper towels. Microwave to death (Crisp and Brown). Allow to cool. If they are still chewey, cook longer.
Alan
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(1) spam vs SPAM and (2) Spam Arrest
1. This is why the slang term "spam" (which is usually used in place of the canonical definition, "unsolicited bulk email") is never spelled "SPAM": it's not an acronym. Hormel have been very good about this over the years, considering that we co-opted the name of one of their products.
2. Spam Arrest are....wait for it...spammers. That's right, a supposedly anti-spam company that has spammed to promote its products. They therefore join spamstrike, and spamfighter, and fortinet, and others who have no problem making the spam problem worse...as long as they profit.
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Does Hormel need a Kleenex or a Band-Aid?
Usually, you can tell what a person is talking about by the context of his/her sentence. Of course, if you are Hormel, or Hormel's lawyers, you do not have this gift of common sense.
My advice to Hormel is: use the word to promote your products. Instead of hating, embrace. Stick to what you're good at. Fire your current crop of lawyers, while you're at it. They obviously know nothing about trademark law.
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Between a rock and the Bench
Yet to own property under our law, we must show we own it and that we are maintaining our ownership. Unless we have a record showing we want to keep our property, it's easy to lose it. This applies to providing a shortcut over our property that might become public and applies to intellectual property.
Hormel's lawsuit that seeks to retrieve rights is also a legal record of the effort to keep rights. Are there other methods that stop dilution?
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Re: Between a rock and the Bench
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that would be a great commercial
It ties in the modern negative association and counters it with a positive older association.
I like spam...the oven roasted turkey spam is the best!
what do you think?
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Unsavory...
If it's the meat product, waterboard, fire, and sue the "dickens-out-of" your chefs. How can a meat product be unsavory?
Case closed.
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SPAM is an acronym
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Re: Meaning of life
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6 x 9 = 42
I suspect Douglas Adams was merely expressing a preference for base 13, in which the above equation is true.
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