Firm wins legal battle over condoms

A condom maker in South China's Guangdong province has won a lawsuit against a Japanese company over its competing claim to be manufacturer of the world's thinnest prophylactic.

The Guangzhou Yuexiu District People's Court pronounced on Monday that Tokyo-based condom brand Okamoto used unfair practices to compete against Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products.

Guinness World Records verified the Chinese company's Aoni condom, which has an average thickness of 0.036 mm, as the world's thinnest in December 2013 — breaking the previous record of 0.038 mm set by Okamoto in March 2012.

But Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products said it found Okamoto's condoms still on sale bearing phrases such as "world's thinnest" and "Guinness World Record" in May 2014.

A lawsuit was thus filed in September 2014 by the Chinese company against its Japanese counterpart citing false advertising, and 1 yuan ($0.15) claimed as compensation for economic loss.

The court held that Okamoto had been informed about the Guinness World Records verification the day after it was announced, as documents between the company and its sales agency in China showed. It therefore ordered Okamoto to stop selling condoms with bearing false advertising and pay the compensation of 1 yuan.

The small amount of compensation claimed has led to speculation that the Guangzhou-based condom maker sued the famous Japanese brand as a publicity stunt.

Many netizens on China's microblogging platform Sina Weibo claimed that they had only heard about the Chinese condom brand because of the lawsuit.

Yoshiyuki Okamoto, president of the Japanese condom company, also viewed the legal challenge as "a way of promoting their name", according to a report in the Financial Times.

"The argument started over whose condom was thinner and they said they needed compensation from us. Do you know how much compensation they wanted? One yuan. It's such a primitive type of battle you can't even laugh about it," Okamoto told the British media outlet in a story published on Aug 31 last year.

However, Guangzhou Daming United Rubber Products has denied the claims.

"We sued Okamoto intending to stop their act of infringement. We decided to demand compensation of only 1 yuan, a nominal amount, because we don't want the proceedings to get stuck on the matter of economic losses," Victor Chan, general manager of the Chinese condom company, told China Daily on Tuesday.

Calling Okamoto "a shameless competitor", Chan said the Japanese company continued to claim it was the manufacturer of the world's thinnest condom to "take advantage of their popularity in China and of Chinese consumers' trust in their brand".

"Okamoto insulted not only us but also consumers," he said.

Chan, whose company produces about 200 million condoms annually and mainly sells to the domestic market, admitted that Chinese condom makers face tough competition from foreign brands such as Okamoto and Durex.

"Chinese people tend to think that imported products have better quality," he said.

According to a report in the South China Morning Post, Okamoto's condoms were among the most popular items bought by Chinese tourists to Japan during the Lunar New Year holiday.