iPhone fart app gets C&D letter for using the phrase “Pull My Finger”
I find fart jokes funny. Some people don’t, but it’s all a matter of preference. It’s not that big of a deal. For Loveland-based InfoMedia and Florida-based Air-O-Matic, though, fart jokes are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
I find fart jokes funny. Some people don’t, but it’s all a matter of preference. It’s not that big of a deal. For Loveland-based InfoMedia and Florida-based Air-O-Matic, though, fart jokes are SERIOUS BUSINESS.
See, this is what happened. InfoMedia has this iPhone app called iFart. For US$ 0.99 you can get it on the App Store and use it to play a wide range of fart noises including stuff like “Jack the Ripper” and “Burrito Maximo”. You can even record your own farts with it.
Anyway. iFart went on to become the number one app on the App Store for 22 consecutive days, supplanting a similar app called “Pull My Finger” from Air-O-Matic. Air-O-Matic then sent InfoMedia a letter full of long legal words to convey their seriousness.
The letter claimed that InfoMedia’s use of the phrase “pull my finger” in news releases and promo vids was a trademark infringement. It also InfoMedia to cease and desist, and requested compensation for lost sales, estimated at US$ 50,000.
Of course, InfoMedia didn’t back down, asking for a declaratory judgment because “The phrase ‘pull my finger’ is understood to be a description of the act of passing gas, not a trademark violation.”
“Believe it or not, I’m really uncomfortable with bathroom humor,” Air-O-Matic co-owner Sam Magdalein told the Denver Post. “My partner is more into that kind of humor, and he pushed me a little bit into doing this as a joke. It would be pretty ridiculous to have this end up in court.”
Yes. Yes, that would be pretty darn ridiculous. I’d definitely watch the made-for-TV movie though.
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Via The Denver Post
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