OnePlus Buds not Apple AirPods? You will have to prove your case in court
The story of OnePlus Buds headphones, which were considered fake AirPods, continued
US Customs officials triumphantly reported yesterday that they were able to seize a large shipment of counterfeit Apple AirPods. The agency solemnly announced this fact to the general public, and officials were proud that they did not allow the attackers to profit from fake headphones. But it was not counterfeit, but quite real OnePlus Buds.
Most of all, what surprised many in this story was that the customs officials did not even bother to look at the box of headphones and compare the internals with real Apple AirPods. It would seem that the situation should clear up and the arrest from the batch of OnePlus Buds should be lifted. But the story develops and looks more and more strange.
OnePlus Buds
For example, the US Customs and Border Protection Agency has confirmed that it does not intend to lift the arrest and allow the import into the country of a batch of 2,000 OnePlus Buds. In an official statement, officials said the OnePlus headset “violates Apple’s trademark configuration.” The arrest of the batch of headphones has nothing to do with the images on the boxes. In order to violate the rights of the owner of the trademark, it is not necessary that there be a mention of Apple on the package. The customs officials said that the importer will have ample opportunity to provide evidence during the trial that his product does not violate the rights of the owners of the registered trademark.
Apple AirPods
It appears that the US Customs and Border Protection Agency is actually accusing OnePlus of plagiarism and believes that its actions infringe on Apple’s intellectual property copyright. It seems to say that “the one who created the OnePlus Buds has no imagination” to create something original and simply copied the AirPods.
The headphones of the two companies are indeed similar, but it is surprising that this story only happened now. When there are a lot of headsets similar to AirPods on the market, but for some reason, the customs officers showed excessive vigilance precisely in relation to OnePlus Buds. And the importer and OnePlus itself will have to prove in court the absence of plagiarism and the uniqueness of their headphones.