<P> Shane Chen, an American businessman and founder of Inventist filed a patent for a device of this type in February 2013 and launched a Kickstarter fund - raising campaign in May 2013 David Pierce suggested in a Wired article that the "Smart S1", a device by the Chinese technology company Chic Robotics holding various patents related to the scooter, could have been the first noting that the Hovertrax is "not quite the same thing". </P> <P> The Smart S1 was released in August 2014, and found success at the 2014 Canton Fair trade show . The devices' increasing popularity in Western countries has been attributed, initially, to endorsement by the wide array of celebrities (including Justin Bieber, Jamie Foxx, Kendall Jenner, Chris Brown, Soulja Boy and Wiz Khalifa). The founders of the American company, PhunkeeTree, encountered the board at the Hong Kong Electronics Show, in 2014 and became involved in its distribution, shortly thereafter . </P> <P> By June 2015, the board was being made by several manufacturers, mainly in the Shenzhen region of China . In January 2015 through Inventist, he announced his intention to pursue litigation In April 2015, Ninebot, a significant manufacturer of devices acquired Segway Inc. (which separately asserted that it holds patents for self - balancing scooters.) in order to resolve the dispute . In May Chen voiced his frustrations regarding patent rights in China . In August 2015, Mark Cuban announced plans to purchase the Hovertrax patents from Chen . Many of the units provided in the first year of manufacture were defective and likely to catch fire, resulting in a major product recall from multiple manufacturers during 2016 (more details below). </P> <P> In June 2016 the U.S. International Trade Commission issued an injunction for patent infringement against UPTECH, U.P. Technology, U.P. Robotics, FreeGo China, EcoBoomer, and Roboscooters . Robstep, INMOTION, Tech in the City, FreeGo settled with Segway . </P>

Why is it called a hoverboard if it has wheels