From [RFC 2109](http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2109.txt):
```
4.1  Syntax:  General

   The two state management headers, Set-Cookie and Cookie, have common
   syntactic properties involving attribute-value pairs.  The following
   grammar uses the notation, and tokens DIGIT (decimal digits) and
   token (informally, a sequence of non-special, non-white space
   characters) from the HTTP/1.1 specification [RFC 2068] to describe
   their syntax.

   av-pairs        =       av-pair *(";" av-pair)
   av-pair         =       attr ["=" value]        ; optional value
   attr            =       token
   value           =       word
   word            =       token | quoted-string

   Attributes (names) (attr) are case-insensitive.  White space is
   permitted between tokens.  Note that while the above syntax
   description shows value as optional, most attrs require them.

   NOTE: The syntax above allows whitespace between the attribute and
   the = sign.
```
Looks like expecting a `=` character to be present is false economy.