LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ZURU, the leading, award-winning designer and producer of toys and consumer goods, today announced that U.S. Customs has recently seized more than 10,000 knockoffs of its best-selling Bunch O Balloons™ product. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were conducting inspections at the Long Beach port of entry when they detained the goods. Bunch O Balloons has been among the best-selling toys in the United States for the last three years. The seizures are the result of ZURU’s successful collaboration with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement to enforce its intellectual property rights and swiftly identify counterfeit goods and prevent them from entering the United States.
Anna Mowbray, ZURU’s COO, states that, “Stopping counterfeit and knockoff goods at the border gives us an effective way to enforce our rights and ensure that low-grade copies do not make their way into the hands of consumers.” She continues, “Protecting our intellectual property and inventions is critical in making sure that our products are not undercut by cheap, low-quality knock-offs. ZURU works with legitimate patent and other IP holders to provide a platform for true inventions to make their way into market and to be respected. Customs enforcement is one of many strategies we employ as a part of our worldwide strike against counterfeiters.”
ZURU aggressively pursues all types of counterfeits and knock-offs and takes all available measures to make sure that its intellectual property rights are protected. In addition to working with Customs agents around the world, ZURU vigorously defends its products against counterfeiters already on the market and on e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, eBay, and Taobao. In November last year, ZURU prevailed in a patent infringement action related to Bunch O Balloons in the United States and was awarded damages in excess of USD 12m.
ZURU has seen international success since the launch of the original Bunch O Balloons product, shipping more than 3 Billion balloons last year worldwide and winning the 2017 Outdoor Toy of the Year in the U.S., the 2016 Australian Toy of The Year and the 2016 Nuremburg Toy Award.
About ZURU Toys
ZURU is a disruptive and award-winning company that designs, develops, manufactures and markets innovative toys and consumer products. Inspired by kids and imaginative play, ZURU is one of the fastest growing toy companies in the U.S. and is known for their agility, creativity and new-age manufacturing techniques. Recent awards and recognition include 2018 Toy of the Year (TOTY) for Bunch O Balloons Filler Soaker in Outdoor Toys and 2018 Top Selling toys in NPD’s All Other Toys super category for Fidget Cube and Outdoor & Sports Toys super category for Bunch O Balloons.
The company has flourished from it small beginnings in Cambridge, New Zealand and now employs more than 400 staff, has 13 offices worldwide, owns multiple factories and supplies most major retailers in 121 countries. ZURU has delighted millions of families all over the world through partnerships with entertainment properties such as Nickelodeon, Disney, Universal Studios and DreamWorks as well as successfully building their own global brands including Bunch O Balloons™, X-Shot™, Robo Alive™, Fidget Cube, Mayka, Tangle and 5 SURPRISE. ZURU strives to create a standard of excellence in its product engineering, marketing and distribution practices and seeks to reimagine play, every day. www.ZURU.com
