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** Financial gossip
Author of Financial Gossip
01. Reverse claim of 2 billion, why?
Presumably many people have seen the famous scene in the movie "Let the Bullets Fly", in which the real and fake Huang Shilang fought Zhang Mazi, and finally played the real body as a stand-in.
Source: Weibo netizens.
But who would have thought that this scene would be staged in the real brand world.
You should remember the news that in early December, Luckin Coffee lost a trademark and copyright infringement case against the Royal Thai 50R Group.
Source: Weibo netizens.
The reason why this incident caused a sensation at the beginning was that it was incredible that this Thai Luckin had almost made a pixel-level replica in addition to flipping the antlers on the logo, and then won the lawsuit!
So much so that at that time, many netizens wondered if this company had a backstage.
Source: Sanlian Life Weekly.
And today I want to talk about the follow-up to this incident!Outrageously, after being cracked down, on the morning of December 19,Royal 50R Group filed a formal lawsuit with the court, asking the court to order China Luckin Coffee to compensate 10 billion baht for economic losses(About RMB 20.)4.6 billion yuan).
Luckin just donated 5 million to Gansu on the front foot, and 2 billion on the back foot was falsely accused by Thailand Luckin, Luckin is really warm and miserable!
Source: Luckin Weibo.
I deliberately checked Luckin's financial report for the first three quarters of 2023, and the profit in the first quarter was 67.8 billion yuan, the second quarter profit was 99.9 billion yuan, the third quarter profit was 961.7 billion yuan, if you really lose 2 billion, there will be little profit left in the first three quarters.
How do I describe this to you?
This is equivalent to the Western Selection asking the Eastern Selection for imitation fees, Li Ghost claiming compensation from Li Kui, and the six-eared macaque asking the Monkey King for recuperation fees.
All in all, this incident is outrageous beyond my knowledge of modern law, it is comparable to a fraud in northern Myanmar, and it is even more unbelievable that this is happening in 2023.
So much so that China Luckin issued in response to this: I don't understand, but I'm shocked!Feelings.
Source: Luckin Weibo.
For this operation, I guess Luo Xiang, the answerer of Luckin, is at a loss!
As for why it was claimed?
The reason given by Thailand Luckin is that in the early days, before the court made a final judgment, China Luckin had repeatedly forced the plaintiff to stop using the trademark, and repeatedly forcibly seized the property of the other party, causing it to suffer serious economic losses. The 50R Group also spent a lot of money on the lawsuit.
Although the whole network is angry, this matter is ridiculous, and Luckin's approach in Thailand is completely in line with Thai law.
Since China's Luckin has not entered the Thai market, Royal Thai 50R Group has legally registered the Luckin trademark with the Thai Ministry of Commerce as early as 2020, and everything is handled in accordance with the rules and procedures of Thai law, and is allowed to use the trademark.
It is precisely because there is no trademark cooperation agreement between China and Thailand, according to Article 63 of the Thai Trademark Law, if the Thai version of Luckin is the first to register the use of this trademark with the Thai Trademark Office, then it has the right to engage in business in this field in Thailand.
This is also why China Luckin lost the lawsuit against Thailand Luckin before, and Thailand Luckin has the greatest confidence to claim 2 billion this time.
However, in reality, since China Luckin does not have any enforceable property in Thailand, even if the court ultimately upholds Thailand's claim for compensation, it is unlikely that it will want to claim compensation across borders.
02. How does Starbucks protect brand equity?
If you take a closer look at the Royal Thai 50R Group, there are actually quite a few operations. It was found that it not only preemptively registered Luckin, but also registered Chinese trademarks such as TikTok, Shell, Chow Tai Fook, and Nongfu Spring in Thailand.
In fact, there is a bit of malicious preemptive registration in this.
The laws of many countries are very vague in the definition of cybersquatting, especially the preemptive registration of well-known trademarks, and most registered trademarks need to be registered separately in each country or region, and can only be effective locally after being authorized by the trademark administration authority of the relevant country or region.
Even if a trademark registered in China is already very well-known, in principle, the effect of the registered trademark is limited to China.
However, in today's era of brand globalization, more and more brands going overseas have become a reality, and in this case, the registration regulations of similar trademarks in various countries are full of bugs, especially 50R, which is suspected to have a deep background"Handy"。
Source: Luckin Weibo.
Of course, in the face of this situation, China Luckin is not without any room for maneuver.
Some legal professionals said that if China's Luckin appeals to the Intermediate Court of Thailand to prove that it used the brand earlier and was more influential around the world, then the court may reconsider the previous decision. Or China Luckin privately negotiates with the other party to obtain the ownership of the trademark through purchase.
But judging from the reality that Thailand Luckin has opened a commercial store,The only way left for China Luckin is to continue to appeal
So how does Starbucks, which also has stores all over the world, protect its brand equity?
It is understood that Starbucks has successively applied for trademark registration in more than 120 countries and regions around the world, and later extended the protection of trademark rights to many countries around the world through Madrid trademark applications.
Source: Starbucks.
A key step in this was Starbucks' application for the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Marks. As an international agreement for trademark protection, Madrid trademark registration applications can cover multiple Madrid member states at once (99 countries have acceded), and trademark protection registered in this way can be extended to other contracting states.
Coincidentally, Thailand also joined the Madrid membership in August 2017.
However, from the results of 50R Group's application for registration of the Luckin trademark in Thailand in 2020, it is inferred that China's Luckin should not have applied for global protection of the trademark in advance through the Madrid Agreement Concerning the International Registration of Trademarks. 03. Chinese brands go to sea, how can they protect themselves?
Even in the new tea drinking circle, Luckin's experience is not unique. Chayan Yuese has also encountered similar overseas trademark squatting incidents. In 2018, an international student preemptively registered the trademark of Chayan Yuese in South Korea and opened a store, and the business was booming.
Source: Tea and Joy Weibo.
But due to legal bugs, there is nothing that can be done about it.
Although this matter has not had any impact on the tea and beauty that is still developing in China. But for Luckin, which has already followed the tide of new tea drinks, this is already a very tricky problem.
In March this year, Luckin took Singapore as its first stop to go to sea, and it was welcomed by local consumers as soon as it opened its store, and it once took 2 hours to queue for a cup of coffee in the store.
Source: Luckin Weibo.
Judging from the popularity of Thai Luckin in the local area, the probability of Chinese Luckin entering the market will not be bad. However, judging from the current situation, if China Luckin wants to enter the Thai market, I am afraid that it will encounter the embarrassment of Thai Luckin's "anti-counterfeiting".
In this situation, it is very likely that Luckin will abandon the Thai market.
This is not only a loss of market interests, but also a loss of global brand reputation. Because once there is a negative or infringing on the interests of consumers, the main brand may become the target of the blame.
And now is a critical time for Luckin to expand overseas. Old rival Cudi Coffee has announced its overseas expansion to South Korea, Indonesia, Japan, and Toronto, Canada, while Luckin has not yet revealed its overseas progress outside of Singapore. Now, with the development of sky-high claims, it is bound to have an impact on Luckin's overseas layout.
On the one hand, it has sounded the alarm for Chinese companies to go overseas. Be sure to plan and lay out your brand assets in advance to avoid falling into a passive situation. Because once it is preemptively registered, it will be extremely difficult to protect rights across borders.
For example, a German company named Oukai has maliciously registered a number of well-known Chinese trademarks such as Goubuli, Shaolin Temple, Lao Gan Ma, and Qiaqia. Finally, after seven years of trial and judgment, the local court finally made a judgment to revoke the trademark in question preemptively registered by EuroKera.
For some brands that urgently need to expand overseas, this can be a fatal blow.
On the other hand, this also poses problems outside the market for Chinese companies to go overseas. Especially for new tea drinks, in the face of unfamiliar overseas markets, it is not only necessary to consider how to compete with domestic counterparts, but also how to localize and integrate into the local culture. Nowadays, even the "self-retention" of brand equity may be eroded in overseas markets.
But in any case, the brand going overseas is a big game of chess, which needs to be considered comprehensively, and it is necessary to take precautions!