Canned meat maker loses Spam battle

Hormel wanted people to stop using its trademark word 'spam' on products that were used to stop unwanted email. Officially Hormel says that it does not object to use of this slang term to describe unsolicited commercial e-mail. However it does not like the use of the word "spam" as a trademark and to the use of its product image in association with that term.

But it has issued several trademark disputes over the matter in the United States against such outfits SpamBop, Spam Arrest, and Spam Cube.

According to Ibtimes, the EU's trademark body said that the outfit's claim that this was diluting its brand name was silly.

It noted that when most people were using Google to search for spam related products, they were unlikely to be looking for canned spicy ham.

Spam, short for Spiced Ham, hit the streets in 1937 and became so famous that almost any canned meat was thought to be 'spam'.

Hormel does have a sense of humour. It has backed Monty Python's Flying Circus's musical "Spamalot" and is not stirred when people have made similar jokes about its products.

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