Photo: Daxiang's Weibo account

 A Beijing-based condom company on Monday said it sued Durex on April 21 for plagiarizing its copyright-protected "butter box" product design, which has been registered as patent by the brand in 2014.

Daxiang is a Chinese condom brand established in 2014. The company announced on Chinese Twitter-like social media platform Sina Weibo on Monday that it has initiated a lawsuit against the British condom manufacture in the name of design infringement.

According to the introduction on Daixiang's official website, the company launched the "butter box" product which is equipped with the "one-hand opening" function after a series of special processes in 2014. The name product was shaped as a butter container, said the company.

Daxiang said that newly released Durex product , which is called 001 and appeared on the market in November 2020, has the similar packaging appearance both in shape and the cover on the product to the original one designed by Daxiang in 2014.

According to Daxiang, Durex used the "almost same" slogan  as Daixang's which goes as "open with only one hand and easy to distinguish front and back." Daxiang said it has used the slogan for at least seven years.

The company claimed that the brand passed the design patent application as the "butter box" in 2014, and posted its patent certificate on Weibo along with the package comparison pictures of the two products.

According to a report by the China Costumer News on Weibo on Monday, the lawyer surnamed Li supporting Durex responded to the lawsuit saying that the "butter box" design is quite popular among the products, which has been used in many condom products by several brands, such as Sagami and Skyn. But Daxiang didn't make any previous legal moves to protect their copyright, Li noted.

, "I deeply doubt the purpose of its lawsuit against us," said Li.

The court in Beijing decided to accept the case on April 21.

Li noted to the report that Durex has not received the complaint from the court yet.