‘Samsung Buds’ Trademark Sparks Bixby-Powered Earbuds Rumor, Other Speculations

Is Samsung preparing an audio device akin to Google’s Pixel Buds? Based on its latest trademark application, the South Korean giant could be doing just that. Or, it could be working on something else. Samsung apparently filed a trademark application for “Samsung Buds” last week.

On Monday, Dutch website Galaxy Club stumbled upon the trademark application Samsung filed at the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) on Sept. 21. Since there is no information about the brand, different interpretations about Samsung’s move have surfaced.

SamMobile says it is possible that the Samsung Buds brand could be used for a new product that’s similar to Google’s Pixel Buds. The Pixel Buds has Google Assistant built-in, so Samsung Buds could pertain to earphones that are powered by Samsung’s Bixby AI assistant. This is of course very likely since Samsung is exerting a lot of effort in making Bixby widely known to consumers.

On the other hand, Galaxy Club surmised that Samsung Buds could be the rebranding of the “In-ear Headphones tuned by AKG“ or the earphones that come with Samsung’s high-end smartphones. But since it’s a bit late for the current generation of top-tier handsets to use the name, it’s possible that the earphones that are coming with the Galaxy S10 next year would be called Samsung Buds.

Samsung already has wireless earbuds under the Gear Icon branding. In fact, it refreshed the Gear IconX a year ago. Even though the series is doing well on its own, it’s also possible that the company could be rebranding the Gear Icon into Samsung Buds just like what it did to the Gear smartwatch series (now called Galaxy Watch).

Samsung has yet to confirm anything. But it’s worth pointing out that the company has been filing several trademarks for many years now and not all of them become real products. Most tech companies simply do this so that they could secure the branding for possible products or devices that are in the pipeline.