Motorola has manufactured and distributed many different models of Bluetooth Headsets, including the HS830, the H3, the H300, the H500, the H605, the H700, the HS805, the HS815, the HS820, the HS850, and the HT820 (collectively the “Headsets"). Each Headset is defective in design and not sufficiently adorned with adequate warnings regarding the likelihood of noise induced hearing loss which can occur if the Headsets are used at the higher volume settings over a period of time, a condition which has no cure or treatment.

Use of Bluetooth headsets is becoming increasingly popular among the consuming public because of the ease and convenience associated with the technology. According to the Insight Research Corporation ("IRC"), "nearly 65 percent of Americans, or 195 million people, are expected to be mobile phone subscribers by the close of 2005." IRC has also reported that "as users become more used to the convenience of cellular, long distance and local usage is shifting from wireline to cellular. The average wireline residential toll minutes of use (MOUs) have been dropping at a compounded rate of 15 percent since 2000, while wireless interstate MOUs per user grew at a compounded rate of nearly 40 percent during the same period. According to one FCC study, on the wireless side, the percentage of interstate residential minutes has increased from 16 percent to 26 percent of all wireless minutes." As more and more people switch from using landlines to using mobile phones in order to accommodate their telecommunication needs, more and more consumers are spending hours per day on the mobile phone. Such increased usage is particularly dramatic with respect to individuals using a mobile phone for business purposes.

Motorola's Headsets have volume controls which have the capacity to produce sounds with time weighted averages exceeding 85 decibels, with sound often peaking in excess of 100 decibels. The Headsets are designed in such a manner that the consumer is deprived of any ability to determine the decibel level of the sound being emitted from the Headset. In a test recently performed by the American Speech-Hearing-Language Association, Motorola's H700 model Headset produced decibel levels of up to 106 decibels at the high setting. According to the time weighted average standards suggested by such organizations as NIOSH and Dangerous Decibels, a consumer could suffer NIHL if exposed to such sounds for between only three to four minutes a day.

Motorola sold the Headsets with a booklet setting forth safety information relating to use of the Headsets. However, Defendants omitted and concealed from consumers any safety information pertaining to the Headsets' propensity for causing noise induced hearing loss. Defendants also omitted and concealed from the consuming public information advising that the Headsets produced noise at decibel levels exceeding 85 db, and even exceeding 100 db.

Millions of consumers have had their hearing put at risk by Motorola's conduct. Because the Headset transmits sound to only one ear, extraneous sound from the environment is simultaneously being heard by the Headset user from the other ear. Such extraneous sound makes it more difficult for the Headset user to isolate and hear the sound being transmitted over the Headset. The Headset user is thus required to maximize the volume of the Headset in order to overcome the extraneous noise being heard in the other ear.

The lawsuit seeks to represents persons that have experienced hearing loss that may be due to BlueTooth use.