Hormel Loses Law Case Over the Word “Spam”   10/10/2006 - 2,345 views, 4 Comments

A: One is the word commonly used to refer to unsolicited commercial email, and the other is… a word commonly used to refer to unsolicited commercial email.

In a move which may have surprised nobody more than it surprised canned meat company Hormel, Hormel lost their legal effort to regain control over their trademark “SPAM”.

Having taken their effort to the EU, Hormel applied to the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market, which is where you apply for trademarks for use in the European Union. Interestingly, Hormel was not requesting the trademark “SPAM” as used on their luncheon meat, but rather, in an apparent bid to rein in the use of “spam” gone wild, they were applying for the trademark “spam” as pertains to “services to avoid or suppress unsolicited emails” and “creation and maintenance of computer software; technical consultancy, particularly in combination with network services; providing of expertise, engineering services and technical consulting services.”

They had also asked for the trademark “spam” as applied to “economic consultancy, particularly in combination with network services; providing of expertise, engineering services and computer programming; economic consulting services.”

Having had their initial application denied, Hormel appealed the decision, only to be dealt a rather forceful and stunning defeat, the appeals board observing that Hormel’s claim in the application that the word ’spam’ would not be understood by a large part of the average English speaking public to mean ‘unsolicted commercial email’ was ridiculous.

“Indeed,” they said, “the board notes that the term SPAM is not only listed in technical dictionaries as a technical term for ‘unsolicited commercial email’ but is also cited in general dictionaries.”