Utot

The maker of "Pull My Finger", an Apple application that simulates the sounds of farts, wants the company making "iFart", a similar application, to stop using phrase, claiming that it is trademark infringement. The "Pull My Finger" company wants $50,000 to settle the dispute.

It is amazing how something as stupid as fart sounds could be the subject of a legal dispute involving almost 2.5 million pesos. It is more amazing that it does seem like a plausible subject of an intellectual property case. It has become quite a common occurrence that persons claiming to have made them popular trademark phrases we have been hearing all our lives. (Recently Perez Hilton wrote about Rachel Zoe attempting to trademark the term “bananas” and was going to sue a guy who printed “bananas” on shirts.)

With the development of apps such as iFart and Pull My Finger, not only are people’s inanities digitized and immortalize, they also become sources of property rights. Stupid ideas become moneymaking machines, and that is where stupidity is sheer brilliance.