SPAM DOESN'T BOPSPAM

ITWales.com reports that a Swansea-based company is the first company to obtain a UK or European word mark containing the word ‘spam’, despite opposition of Hormel Foods, owner of the SPAM trade mark. Welsh company, NetBop applied to register BopSpam for an anti-spam system and Hormel opposed the application. In a preliminary hearing, the hearing officer indicated that he was minded to find in NetBop’s favour, and Hormel dropped the opposition.

The IPKat finds this a little surprising, but without knowing the reasoning it’s hard to assess.