China’s condom is world’s thinnest: court settles bragging rights and orders rival Japanese firm to pay 1 yuan damages over false claim
A verdict has finally been reached in the high-profile battle between rival Chinese and Japanese condom companies, which were both claiming bragging rights for making the world’s thinnest contraceptives, mainland media reports.
A Chinese court has found the Japanese condom maker Okamoto guilty of engaging in unfair competition – and ordered it to pay damages to its rival of just 1 yuan (HK$1.2) – after continuing to claim that its condoms were the world’s thinnest, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
In fact that honour belongs to China’s Guangzhou Daming Lianhe, which broke the Guinness World Record in December 2013 after producing a condom that had an average thickness of 0.036mm.
READ MORE: Who makes world’s thinnest condoms? Size matters as China firm sues Japanese rival over title
The Yuexiu district People’s Court in Guangzhou, Guangdong, when issuing its recent verdict, also ordered Okamoto to stop selling its condoms bearing the slogan “thinnest record holder”.
It ruled that Okamoto was misleading customers by claiming it held the record for manufacturing the world’s thinnest condoms.
Okamoto’s condoms had held the Guinness World Record in March 2012 after the company produced the world’s thinnest condom with an average thickness of 0.038 mm.
A year later Guangzhou Daming Lianhe then broke that record by producing condoms that were found to be 0.002mm thinner.
However, Daming Lianhe discovered that Okamoto was still continuing to advertise its condoms using the slogan “world’s thinnest Guinness record”.
It then sued Okamoto for false advertising and also asked the Guangzhou court to order the Japanese company to stop selling condoms bearing the slogan.
The report did not say why damages of only 1 yuan were imposed by the court, or whether Okamoto would contest the ruling.
