Patent Law Blog (Patently-O): Pull My Finger Fred
Meet Pull My Finger® Fred. He is a white, middle-aged, overweight man with black hair and a receding hairline, sitting in an armchair wearing a white tank top and blue pants. Fred is a plush doll and when one squeezes Fred’s extended finger on his right hand, he farts. He also makes somewhat crude, somewhat funny statements about the bodily noises he emits, such as “Did somebody step on a duck?” or “Silent but deadly.”
Fartman could be Fred’s twin. Fartman, also a plush doll, is a white, middle-aged, overweight man with black hair and a receding hairline, sitting in an armchair wearing a white tank top and blue pants. Fartman (as his name suggests) also farts when one squeezes his extended finger; he too cracks jokes about the bodily function. Two of Fartman’s seven jokes are the same as two of the 10
spoken by Fred. Needless to say, Tekky Toys, which manufactures Fred, was not happy when Novelty, Inc., began producing Fartman, nor about Novelty’s production of a farting Santa doll sold under the name Pull-My-Finger Santa.
...
Somewhat to our surprise, it turns out that there is a niche market for farting dolls, and it is quite lucrative...
Meet Pull My Finger® Fred. He is a white, middle-aged, overweight man with black hair and a receding hairline, sitting in an armchair wearing a white tank top and blue pants. Fred is a plush doll and when one squeezes Fred’s extended finger on his right hand, he farts. He also makes somewhat crude, somewhat funny statements about the bodily noises he emits, such as “Did somebody step on a duck?” or “Silent but deadly.”
Fartman could be Fred’s twin. Fartman, also a plush doll, is a white, middle-aged, overweight man with black hair and a receding hairline, sitting in an armchair wearing a white tank top and blue pants. Fartman (as his name suggests) also farts when one squeezes his extended finger; he too cracks jokes about the bodily function. Two of Fartman’s seven jokes are the same as two of the 10
spoken by Fred. Needless to say, Tekky Toys, which manufactures Fred, was not happy when Novelty, Inc., began producing Fartman, nor about Novelty’s production of a farting Santa doll sold under the name Pull-My-Finger Santa.
...
Somewhat to our surprise, it turns out that there is a niche market for farting dolls, and it is quite lucrative...
Pull My Finger Fred Doll - Bookshelf
Blame It on the Dog, A Modern History of the Fart
"Pull my finger" has also become a buzz phrase on the lucrative gadget and prank circuit, thanks to Pull My Finger Fred, a loquacious doll with an extended ...The Law of Marketing
Novelty contends that rather than copy, it merely made a similar doll based on the same ... the 'pull my finger' joke.” That, Novelty ar- gues, is the idea, ...West's federal supplement
I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies), True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl
Now, even though I was with the correct group as far as my physical appeal ... fit for a corporate environment when I plopped my Pull My Finger Fred doll, ...Indianapolis Monthly
... THEY WERE PLANNING A lawyer for accused murderer and rapist Frederick M. Baer ... resembles Pull My Finger Fred, a doll licensed by a competing company. ...Information Source Directory
GIFT IDEAS FOR THE RUDE AND SOCIALLY UNACCEPTABLE! - People ...
One drawback to the Pull My Finger Fred doll is that because it is ... to sit up properly so you have to hold on to the doll when you pull the finger. ...
Darknet: Whose idea is it anyway?
for imitating its "Pull My Finger Fred" doll, which shakes, makes a crude noise and ... titled "Pull My Finger Charlie" showing a hypothetical toy doll that ...
Indiana company sued over Diptops, those plastic caps used ...
First came Pull My Finger Fred and his copyright-infringing doppelgangers Fartman and Pull-My-Finger Santa, flatulent dolls all.Next came Billy Bob ...
IP Legal Lounge: Copyrights
Around 1999 it finished a doll that it named "Pull My Finger Fred. ... spotted a Fred doll in Hong Kong and subsequently described Fred to Novelty's art director who prepared a ...
United States Court of Appeals
a manufacturer of Tekky's Fred doll, and he spotted Fred. In his deposition, Green testified that he might have ... using the phrase "Pull My Finger" to sell the farting Santa ...