Text | lumens
After suing Thailand's "Li Ghost" Luckin brand failed, the domestic Luckin Coffee was actually claimed 2 billion yuan.
On December 20, a number of ** reported that the Royal Thai 50R Group, which originally had a brand trademark dispute with Luckin Coffee, formally submitted a lawsuit to the court, asking the court to sentence China Luckin Coffee to compensate for economic losses of 10 billion baht, thus bringing the dispute between China and Thailand Luckin "Li Kui and Li Ghost" into the public eye.
First of all, let's talk about why Luckin Coffee started a lawsuit in Thailand. The reason for the incident is that at the beginning of 2022, a Chinese netizen found Luckin's store while traveling in Thailand, and was officially cracked down on by Luckin Coffee after checking in and posting it on social **. In August 2022, Luckin Coffee officially issued a statement: Luckin Coffee has not opened a store in Thailand, the Luckin store in Thailand is a counterfeit store, and the relevant departments of Luckin have adopted legal means to protect their rights.
Judging from the picture, the so-called "Luckin Coffee" stores in Thailand are highly consistent with the domestic Luckin Coffee in terms of trademark shape and color, as well as English logo, and the only difference is that the direction of the deer head in the trademark is different.
Encountering such an obvious high imitation, Luckin Coffee said that it would use legal means to protect its rights, and this is indeed the case. It is understood that Luckin Coffee initially filed a lawsuit with the Thai **Intellectual Property and International** Court, accusing the 50R Group behind "Thai Luckin Coffee" of maliciously registering trademarks, and the lower court ruled that the 50R Group lost the lawsuit.
However, in a subsequent appeal by the Royal 50R Group, the court ruled in favor of the Thai side on December 1 this year. ThereforeRoyal 50R Group sued the court for 10 billion baht (about 2 billion yuan) in compensation from China Luckin Coffee on the grounds that it was forced to stop using the trademark and seize its property before the judgment.
From the perspective of domestic consumers, it is clear that China first had Luckin Coffee, and then it was blatantly counterfeited by Thailand, why did the Thai court still rule in favor of Li Gui?In fact, after the Royal 50R Group copied Luckin Coffee in 2019, it complied with local regulations in terms of trademark registration and subsequent operation, which means that although it was plagiarized, this kind of trademark "squatting" was protected by Thai law, so the court made a judgment in favor of Royal Thai 50R Group.
As for the current claim for 2 billion yuan in sky-high compensation, whether the court will support it has not yet come to an end. But judging from Luckin Coffee's current response, it has the same idea as many netizens: "I don't understand, but I'm shocked."