X

iFart Mobile to Pull My Finger: You stink

iPhone fart app maker takes another to court over trademark infringement accusations as two developers battle it out in crowded fart simulation app market.

Elinor Mills Former Staff Writer
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service and the Associated Press.
See full bio
Elinor Mills
2 min read

The maker of iPhone app iFart Mobile has taken rival Air-O-Matic to court over the rights to use the term "pull my finger." InfoMedia

The iPhone farting app market is starting to get pretty noisy.

iFart Mobile, maker of an app that simulates farting noises, asked a court on Friday to rule that it can use the term "pull my finger" without risking trademark infringement claims by another iPhone fart app named, you guessed it, Pull My Finger.

InfoMedia, which developed iFart Mobile, filed a complaint for declaratory judgment in Colorado District Court and named rival Air-O-Matic as defendant.

In a blog posting, InfoMedia said it filed the complaint after an attorney for Air-O-Matic asked the company to pay $50,000 to its rival for using the terminology.

Air-O-Matic had also complained to Apple that InfoMedia was guilty of unfair business practices and trademark infringement because it used the term "pull my finger" in a news release and YouTube promo video. Air-O-Matic also asked that iFart Mobile be removed from the iPhone App Store, but Apple told the companies to work it out among themselves.

In its filing with the court, InfoMedia claims the term "pull my finger" is common English slang and a "descriptive phrase" and therefore not covered by trademark.

"I've got nothing against the people who make Pull My Finger. In my opinion, their app was inferior to ours," InfoMedia's Joel Comm wrote in the blog post. "As a matter of good will, I changed the press release the very same day they contacted me. I have also changed the name of the video to show that there are no hard feelings."

Representatives from Air-O-Matic could not be reached for comment on the filing, and their lawyer did not immediately return a call and e-mail seeking comment Friday evening.

The iPhone fart app market is nothing to hold your nose over. There are at least 75 different flatulence simulation software apps on the App Store, according to InfoMedia's filing.

I don't know which company is in the right here, but frankly, this whole mess stinks.