Bad apples: US customs seize OnePlus earbuds thinking they're knock-off AirPods US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is tasked with protecting the country from terrorists, clandestine immigrants, agricultural pests, and anyone with a funny accent. Add to that list Chinese tech brand OnePlus, which has had 2,000 of its wireless earbuds seized under the belief that they were counterfeit Apple AirPods. …
Dumb... not that someone thought "OnePlus" was "fake Apple." Dumb that customs is taking it upon themselves to begin with to decide that a product is "counterfeit" when it is in what is obviously the package it will be sold in, and that package in no way resembles the package Apple would use.
"The interception of these counterfeit earbuds is a direct reflection of the vigilance and commitment to mission success by our CBP Officers daily. "
Nope. It's a direct reflection of how little you're paying attention to what you're actually looking at. As for mission success, it is hardly a success to block something that has nothing to do with what you're looking for. That's called a false positive, and you should correct that.
Except that, this is the Trump era, and we all know that you're just doing your bit to bother China in any way you can, even if it is wrong.
"CBP Officers are protecting the American public from various dangers on a daily basis," said Troy Miller, director of CBP's New York Field Operations
.
Rogue Earbuds !!
The summer blockbuster writes itself.
[ Though a sizeable section of the American audience will spell it 'Rouge'. ]
.
[ As well, why are they so fucking pompous and self-congratulatory ? ]
Considering the constant theft of IP (intellectual property) from around the world by China: Criminal Nation over the past 20+ years, the default expectation/assumption is that if it looks like a ripoff, it must be a ripoff. But in this case, despite some similarity in the devices to those of Apple, there's obviously enough difference to trigger a default conference with Apple before proclaiming them as ripoffs. Occasionally Chinese companies will, inexplicably, invent and innovate. Considering the incentive killing idiocy of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party), I have no idea why this is the case. But it does happen! And when it does, I take interest and occasionally buy the result!
Well, this is also the place that tried to force access to an Apple-owned corporate laptop, so maybe they're just jerks who don't quite understand how to do the "protection" part of their ostensible job.
Isn't this standard politics for a politician and/or party expecting to lose?
Fuck things up so much the next administration has spend their term undoing the damage and further disenchanting the voters, causing that administration to get kicked out at the subsequent election.
As per the story - this appears to be a violation of Apple's Configuration Trademark which makes siexure a reasonable course of action.
In the US you can register your product with CBP with respect to its design - so if it resembles an earbud, even if it's printed with a dayglo blue logo sayning "not produced by any fruity company" it could still be in violation of Apple's Configuration Trademark.
"CBP officers at JFK Airport recently seized 2,000 counterfeit Apple AirPods"
Then it was pointed out that the goods weren't packaged as 'Apple Airpods' so can't be called counterfeit.
Whoops! Better find some other tenuous reason to save our sad arse.
“Upon examining the shipment in question, a CBP Import Specialist determined that the subject earbuds appeared to violate Apple’s configuration trademark,”
Job done!
I purchase gemstones, and fossils from a geological supply importer in the US. He tells me stories of dealing with US Customs that would make a great comedy routine. One shipment, of fossilized shark teeth that they would not release until he provided documentation that they were not harvested from an endangered species. No, the species is EXTINCT. Ditto ammonites, etc.
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
