Xiaomi accused of lifting air purifier design from Japanese company

Washington: Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi has been accused of stealing the design of a Japanese company's air purifier for its own product.

According to PC World, Japan's Balmuda, a maker of electric fans has alleged that Xiaomi's new smartphone-controlled "Mi Air Purifier," launched on Tuesday, closely resembles its "Air Engine" purifier.

This is not the first time the Chinese smartphone maker has been accused of design theft.

Xiaomi has often been accused of copying designs of latest Apple products.

Balmuda's head of product design Gen Terao wrote that Xiaomi's air purifier was surprisingly similar to a product that the Japanese company released in 2012.

Another post by the company read that Balmuda's "Air Engine" purifier was also being sold in China, where it has been popularly received, adding that Xiaomi had even talked about a partnership once, but Balmuda declined because its developers were too busy, the report said.