NewCardDude
06-16-2004, 08:30 PM
By Mark Harrington
Staff Writer
June 17, 2004
About those Spam King-branded panties...
Scott Richter, the self-proclaimed Spam King who had planned to launch a clothing line based on his global status as a master of junk e-mail, has put his fashion ambitions on hold until he settles a trademark matter with the real king of Spam: meat conglomerate, Hormel.
Richter, president of Colorado e-mail marketing firm OptInBig.com, said in an e-mail yesterday that shortly after he began marketing a Spam King clothing line last month, he received a cease-and-desist letter from Hormel telling him it owned the rights to the name, Spam. Richter had just launched the line of hats, T-shirts and panties under the Spam-King and SK brand, along with edgy slogans such as "click it," and "just opt out."
In the physical world, Spam is the salty pinkish meat amalgam that has been marketed around the globe since 1937. Hormel has been known to keep a watchful eye on commercial use of the term. British comedy troop Monty Python's famous Spam skit, in which Vikings sing the word and drown out all else, led to its use in the cyber world to describe inundating unwanted e-mail.
Hormel spokeswoman Julie Craven didn't return a phone call seeking comment yesterday. But the company makes its position clear on the Spam Web site.
"It is only when someone attempts to trademark the word 'spam' that we object to such use, in order to protect our rights in our famous trademark SPAM," the company notes. "... we don't appreciate it when someone else tries to make money on the goodwill that we created in our trademark or product image, or takes away from the unique and distinctive nature of our famous trademark SPAM."
Then, too, Hormel has serious ambitions for its own SPAM-branded clothing and nonedible product line. There, users will find more than 100 products bearing the name, including golf balls, scrunchies, hats and glow-in-the-dark boxer shorts.
Hormel said it doesn't oppose the use of spam as slang to connote unsolicited commercial e-mail, and it goes to great lengths on its site to refer to junk e-mail as UCE.
Richter, who is suing anti-spam advocates and is close to settling a suit against him by the New York attorney general, wasn't available late yesterday to say whether or not he would be willing to market clothes under the UCE-King brand.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.nynewsday.com/business/ny-rich0617,0,5211524.story?coll=nyc-business-headlines
Staff Writer
June 17, 2004
About those Spam King-branded panties...
Scott Richter, the self-proclaimed Spam King who had planned to launch a clothing line based on his global status as a master of junk e-mail, has put his fashion ambitions on hold until he settles a trademark matter with the real king of Spam: meat conglomerate, Hormel.
Richter, president of Colorado e-mail marketing firm OptInBig.com, said in an e-mail yesterday that shortly after he began marketing a Spam King clothing line last month, he received a cease-and-desist letter from Hormel telling him it owned the rights to the name, Spam. Richter had just launched the line of hats, T-shirts and panties under the Spam-King and SK brand, along with edgy slogans such as "click it," and "just opt out."
In the physical world, Spam is the salty pinkish meat amalgam that has been marketed around the globe since 1937. Hormel has been known to keep a watchful eye on commercial use of the term. British comedy troop Monty Python's famous Spam skit, in which Vikings sing the word and drown out all else, led to its use in the cyber world to describe inundating unwanted e-mail.
Hormel spokeswoman Julie Craven didn't return a phone call seeking comment yesterday. But the company makes its position clear on the Spam Web site.
"It is only when someone attempts to trademark the word 'spam' that we object to such use, in order to protect our rights in our famous trademark SPAM," the company notes. "... we don't appreciate it when someone else tries to make money on the goodwill that we created in our trademark or product image, or takes away from the unique and distinctive nature of our famous trademark SPAM."
Then, too, Hormel has serious ambitions for its own SPAM-branded clothing and nonedible product line. There, users will find more than 100 products bearing the name, including golf balls, scrunchies, hats and glow-in-the-dark boxer shorts.
Hormel said it doesn't oppose the use of spam as slang to connote unsolicited commercial e-mail, and it goes to great lengths on its site to refer to junk e-mail as UCE.
Richter, who is suing anti-spam advocates and is close to settling a suit against him by the New York attorney general, wasn't available late yesterday to say whether or not he would be willing to market clothes under the UCE-King brand.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
http://www.nynewsday.com/business/ny-rich0617,0,5211524.story?coll=nyc-business-headlines