When Is a Wart Hog A Canned Pork Product?

Not often in the course of American litigation have the words ''good-natured wart hog'' appeared. Ditto ''evil in porcine form'' and ''nasty pagan brute.'' But the battle of Hormel Foods Corporation v. Jim Henson Productions Inc. -- affectionately known as Spam v. Spa'am -- was not your average case.

Still, it attracted little public attention as it wended its way through three federal courts.

Hormel, the maker of Spam, the canned luncheon meat, said it was worried about being confused with Spa'am, one of Miss Piggy's tribal guards in the ''Muppet Treasure Island'' movie. So worried that it sued for trademark infringement.

The three-day trial in Federal District Court in Manhattan in 1995 revealed just how seriously one can take canned meat. Testifying for Hormel, Laura A. Peracchio, a consumer behavior expert, said ''Spa'am is unappealing and will lead to negative associations on the part of consumers because he has small eyes, protruding teeth, warts, a skull on his headdress, is generally untidy and speaks in a deep voice with poor grammar and diction.''

Judge Kimba Wood, however, was more persuaded by Anne Devereaux Jordan, an expert in children's literature, who noted that kids like characters that are not classically handsome, like ''Pumbaa, the good-natured wart hog in another kids' movie, 'The Lion King.' '' While Hormel found Spa'am unhygienic, the judge found him merely sloppy.