SPAMARREST PRODUCT NOT FOR STAMPING OUT CANNED MEAT (8-2003)

When someone says the word “spam,” what’s the first thing you 
think of?

If you have an e-mail address, most of you would probably think of 
unwanted commercial e-mail. Spam is a term used to describe that 
most annoying of all electronic correspondences, the e-mail 
advertisement.

But those who were alive before the personal computer age remember 
that Spam, with a capital letter, is also a brand name for meat in 
a can. It’s manufactured by Hormel Foods, who has had no 
objections to people using its trade-marked brand name as a 
synonym for unsolicited commercial e-mail.

The company does, however, take issue with the use of its logo in 
conjunction with the slang term spam. And it is objecting quite 
vigorously to the use of its brand name as part of another 
company’s brand of software that is designed to eliminate spam 
(the e-mail kind) from people’s lives.

SpamArrest filed papers with the trademark office earlier this 
year. The company specializes in blocking unwanted e-mail. But 
Hormel Foods objected, filing two challenges with the U.S. Patent 
and Trademark Office to try to prevent SpamArrest from using its 
name.

SpamArrest says it has nothing at all to do with the canned meat, 
and therefore should be allowed to use the name in its trademark. 
But Hormel isn’t buying it and wants SpamArrest to cease and 
desist.

The slang term was originally coined in homage to a classic Monty 
Python comedy sketch. The British comedy troupe’s sketch was set 
in a restaurant. Almost everything on the menu included Spam, such 
as “sausage Spam Spam bacon Spam tomato and Spam,” or “Lobster 
Thermidor au Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencal 
manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, 
brandy with a fried egg on top and Spam.”

After each time the waitress recited a list from the menu, a group 
of Vikings at the next table would break out into a song about 
Spam, thus drowning out the waitress who got increasingly angry.

In similar fashion, spam e-mails often drown out the legitimate e-
mail messages from the inbox of many computer users each day. Some 
users get far more spam messages than legitimate ones.

It is understandable that Hormel wouldn’t want its brand name used 
in association with a service that wants to “stamp out” something 
that might be confused as one of its own products. But a reality 
check is in order here.

Very few people are confused or gullible enough to believe that 
SpamArrest is a company that wants to do away with canned meat. 
Some intellectual property lawyers give Hormel no more than a 50 
percent chance of winning its case.

Personally, I like Spam (the meat), though I detest spam (the junk 
e-mail). And I don’t believe sales of Spam (the meat), will suffer 
because of SpamArrest. So Hormel should just get over it.