Hormel Foods Corporation of Austin, Texas has tried to register SPAM as a Community Trade Mark (“CTM”) – i.e. a trade mark covering the European Union countries – for “Services to avoid or suppress unsolicited emails” in class 38 and related services in classes 36 and 42. The mark was registered with the claim that the use of “SPAM” for unwanted email, but the application was rejected as the examiners found it was “primarily descriptive of the goods or services”. Perhaps more worring is that previous successful applications for the SPAM trademark covers classes for “coffee, tea, cocoa” and rather worryingly “clothing footwear and headgear”. For more information read the article on the Marketing Law website (registration required).
