Let’s look again into the world of vibrating razors.   In my previous post, I showed an early vibrating razor, the Stahley Live Blade.  It was released in the mid-40’s and you just wind it up and off it goes. 

But what came next?  There was the short-lived Orbiter 4000 offered by Gillette in the late 1960’s.  Sales were lackluster and it disappeared quickly.  Badger and Blade has a great post about the Orbitor 4000 and you should take a look. 

Fast forward to 2004 and the razor wars continue to rage on.  As always, it has come down between archrivals Gillette and Schick.  Technically, the fight was with Wilkinson Sword but both brands (Schick and Wilkinson) were owned by Energizer Holdings (and then later Edgewell Personal Care).  But back to the story…

The two companies have been trading lawsuits for a long long time.  In this case, Wilkinson Sword was about to release the Quattro, the first four-bladed razor.  Gillette sued to stop the all Quattro sales since they alleged that the razor infringed on their own patents.  To put it bluntly, Gillette got swatted down by the courts and it seemed that they would have to beat them in the market instead. 

Gillette launched the M3 Power in the United States in May 2004.  The M3 Power included three blades and a battery-powered feature which caused the razor to vibrate.  Gillette called the feature micropulses and at the time, Peter Hoffman, president of Gillette’s blade and razor division, said it “delivers gentle pulses” that “excite the hairs”.  Wilkinson Sword wasn’t having any of that.  They filed multiple lawsuits in multiple countries.  They first won in Germany when 2 different courts said Gillette’s claims were misleading and false.  Gillette changed their television ads based on that decision but other advertisements were not changed. 

And in May 2005, the United States District Court in Connecticut weighed in.  Visit the Harvard site if you want to read the decision.  In short, Gillette lost.  The court decision uses words like “unsubstantiated and inaccurate”, “greatly exaggerated” and “literally false.”