Imagine a company's main legitimate product being accidentally labeled a "counterfeit" of another type of product. This is what happened with the United States Customs and Border Protection just recently.
In a recent press release by the United States Customs and Border Protection on Friday, they proudly announced that they were able to seize about 2,000 boxes of these so-called "counterfeit" Apple Airpods even claiming them to be worth $400,000 from a certain shipment at the John F. Kennedy Airport all the way in New York.
However, the photos that were released by the official press release appeared to show stacks of boxes of the OnePlus Buds instead! These were wireless earphones manufactured by another smartphone maker known as OnePlus and not actually Apple Airpods as the United States Customs and Border Protection previously claimed.
Although Tech Crunch reached out to both CBP and OnePlus, there was still no response from both parties.
CBP's statement on the "counterfeit" Apple AirPods
According to the given press release that celebrated this "finding", the actual interception of the seen "counterfeit" earbuds is actually a "direct reflection" of the departments' "vigilance and commitment" to the mission success by the different CBP Officers on a daily basis according to the New York Field Operations director of DBP known as Troy Miller.
The press release then went on to note its previous success saying that nationwide in the previous fiscal year of 2019, the CBP has been able to seize about 27,559 shipments of different goods that actually violated the known intellectual property rights or IPR. The entire estimated MSRP of the known seized goods, had they actually been genuine, have been said to increase to nearly about $1.5 billion over the given $1.4 billion of the previous fiscal year of 2018.
CBS's previous findings
The press release also noted that Watches and also jewelry were actually included and topped the list for the number of total seizures with about 4,242 representing the 15 percent of all of the known seizures.
Watches and jewelry also remained at the very top of the list of different products seized by the total MSRP value along with the seizures valued at a little over $687 million, which in the end makes up about 44 percent of the entire total MSRP value of these seizures.
Different wearing apparel along with accessories then placed second by the total MSRP value along with seizures that estimated to be valued at a little more than about $226 million.
It can be quite embarrassing that OnePlus Buds were mistaken for counterfeit Apple AirPods but it seems like there is still no response from the party as to how they took the recent incident. CBP has also not yet given a followup on the misinformation recently published.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Urian Buenconsejo
