After a 63-page legal and linguistic analysis, a panel of federal trademark judges ruled this past week that consumers aren't likely to confuse Spam, the canned meat product, with Seattle-based Spam Arrest's software for blocking junk e-mail.
It's "the first and only" victory in a raft of cases that meat-packing giant Hormel, which makes Spam, has brought against software companies, says Spam Arrest's attorney, Derek Newman. Some others settled, while many have been waiting for the outcome of Spam Arrest's bout.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/sundaybuzz/2004046943_sundaybuzz02.html
Seattle's Spam Arrest wins trademark suit with Hormel
- http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/341532_tbrfs29.htmlHormel Foods Corp. in Austin, Minn., sued Seattle software-maker Spam Arrest to try to stop it from using the capitalized word "Spam" as a trademark name. But the U.S. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board ruled against Hormel, saying people won't confuse software that blocks unwanted e-mails with the iconic canned meat that's been around for 70 years, the Star Tribune in Minneapolis reported Thursday.
- http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Quirks/2007/11/29/spam_not_just_for_eating_anymore/2720/
These 3 articles, and there are many more, are an excellent example of a large corporation trying to use the law to get it's way. This time they were not sucessful, but it took Spam Arrest 5 years in the courts, and I don't know how much money to get to that point.
It is predicted by many in the domain business that large corporations will trend in the future to use both money and political power to try to control domains that they do not own, starting by trying to change the laws of domain ownership and use.
