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What's In A Name?
I guess we should have seen this one coming. After
all, Minnesota based Hormel Foods has produced the luncheon meat SPAM for
decades. And quite naturally, they hold a trademark for the name.
So in a move that shouldn't really surprise any of
us, Hormel has a message for a Seattle software company: Stop, in the name
of Spam!
The canned-meat company has filed two legal challenges with the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office to try to stop SpamArrest from using the
decades-old name Spam.
SpamArrest, which specializes in blocking junk e-mail or "spam," filed
papers to trademark its corporate name early this year. Hormel then sent
the company a warning to drop the word "Spam." SpamArrest refused.
So who has the rights to spam - and who hasn't? It
looks like the Trademark Trial and Appeals Court in Washington, D.C. will
hear the case sometime in 2004.
SpamArrest's chief executive maintains that his company's use of the word
has nothing to do with Hormel's product, first produced in 1937. Hormel
officials disagree, arguing that the company has carefully protected and
invested in the brand name.
In their legal challenges, Hormel defends the SPAM
name and contends that the public could confuse the meat product with the
technology company. It filed its challenges in late June.
Hormel acknowledges that its brand name has taken on new meaning, and it
outlines on its Web site what it considers acceptable uses of the word.
It says it doesn't object when "spam" is used to describe unsolicited
commercial e-mail, but it does object when pictures of its product are
used in association with the e-mail term.
So until this case is settled one way or another, here's a tip: don't eat
junk email and don't email luncheon meat - or something like that.
Source: AP, "Hormel Fights to Defend Spam Name," July 30, 2003.
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