Audio By Carbonatix
There’s a flatulence flap a-brewin’ in Denver’s U.S. District Court.
Loveland-based software developer InfoMedia, Inc. — creator of the Apple iPhone app iFart Mobile — has asked a judge to rule that it can use the phrase “pull my finger” in its marketing without infringeing on the trademark of another fart-noise app called, you guessed it, Pull My Finger.
The history of the fart-app war is explained in what is possibly the funniest court filing ever.
To summarize: iFart and Pull My Finger, developed by Florida-based Air-O-Matic Inc., are 99-cent iPhone apps that, in lawyer-speak, allow iPhone users “to simulate flatulence noises.” In fact, iFart has twenty different noises, including The Butt Socket, Burrito Maximo and The Wipe Out.
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To market the iFart, which debuted in December, InfoMedia sent out a press release that included the phrase “pull my finger.” It also posted a YouTube video called “iFart Mobile — Pull My Finger.”
In January, Air-O-Matic asked Apple to remove the iFart app because it had violated Air-O-Matic’s trademark. But Apple refused, telling the competing fart-makers to work it out between themselves. So in February, Air-O-Matic’s lawyer sent a letter to InfoMedia’s lawyer detailing how iFart’s use of the phrase “pull my finger” had hurt Air-O-Matic and asking for $50,000 to settle the matter.
Joel Comm, owner of InfoMedia, describes what happened next on his blog, JoelComm.com. In Comm’s estimation, he had three choices: do nothing, wait for Air-O-Matic to file suit or file suit himself. He chose option three.
So now it’s up to a federal court judge to decide whether it’s possible to trademark “pull my finger” — a decision that could have weighty consequences for gaseous old men and adolescent boys the world over. In arguing its case, InfoMedia cites Wikipedia, the interweb’s one-stop-shop for 100-percent reliable information on everything from gonorrhea to Thomas Jefferson.
Here is an excerpt from the argument: “The phrase ‘pull my finger,’ and derivations thereof, are generally known and widely understood in American society to be a joke or prank regarding flatulence. The prank begins when the prankster senses the deep stirrings of flatulence.
“The prankster then requests that an unsuspecting person pull [his or her] finger. The prankster extends his index finger to the victim. As the victim pulls the prankster’s finger, his flatulence erupts so as to suggest a causal relationship between the pulling of the finger and the subsequent expulsion of gas.
“In other words, the phrase ‘pull my finger’ is understood to be a description of the act of passing gas.”
I hope the judge orders a full jury trial. And while you’re waiting for that, enjoy this sophisticated video from the ifartmobile.com website.
