According to the Chinese Overseas Chinese Network, citing Thai headlines, a number of Thai media reported that on the morning of the 19th, the Thai Royal 50R Group (50R group) formally submitted a lawsuit to the court, asking the court to sentence China Luckin Coffee to compensate for economic losses of 10 billion baht (about 2.046 billion yuan), which has been accepted by the court.
Thailand's Luckin claims 2 billion
According to the report, the Royal Thai 50R Group said in the documents submitted to the court that it had legally registered the Luckin trademark with the Thai Ministry of Commerce in 2020, and everything was handled in accordance with the rules and procedures of Thai law, and was allowed to use the trademark to operate a coffee shop business that sells beverages such as tea and coffee. However, China Luckin Coffee later filed a lawsuit against the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court, accusing 50R Group of maliciously registering its trademark, for which the lower court ruled against the defendant. However, the 50R Group considered the judgment unfair and submitted a rebuttal to the court, which won the case on December 1 this year.
The complaint of the Royal Thai 50R Group also stated 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. 50R Group also spent a lot of money to fight the lawsuit, and asked the court to award a total of 10 billion baht (about 2 billion yuan) in compensation to China Luckin Coffee.
Xiaobian noticed that in August 2022, Luckin Coffee issued a statement saying: Thailand is fake! Luckin Coffee has not opened a store in Thailand. The Luckin store in Thailand is a counterfeit store.
In addition, according to Yicai report, Luckin Coffee sued the relevant infringing party in 2021.
On November 24, 2022, the Thai court announced the first-instance judgment, ruling in favor of Luckin Coffee China, demanding the cancellation of the relevant trademark registration and ordering the two defendants to stop using the trademark. The defense filed an appeal on March 24, 2023, and the trial reconvened on November 30, 2023, but the verdict of the appeal was not published in the Thai court system.
Thai lawyer interprets Luckin Coffee's defeat
Recently, Thailand's Luckin claimed on overseas social media that Luckin had failed to defend its rights in Thailand. Thailand's Luckin Coffee cited a media report, pointing out that on December 1, Thailand's Central Tribunal for Intellectual Property and International Trade announced the final trial of the case of China's Luckin Coffee Company suing Thailand's 50R Group for trademark copyright infringement, and said that Luckin Coffee lost the case.
According to Red Star News, on December 5, relevant legal experts of Wenhua Law Firm in Bangkok, Thailand, told reporters that after their inquiries, the Royal Thai 50R Group and its subsidiary Thailand Luckin Coffee Co., Ltd. are both Sino-Thai joint ventures;
"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 trademark with the Thai Trademark Office, then it has the right to engage in business in this field in Thailand, which is why Luckin lost the lawsuit. Tian, manager of the legal department of Thailand's Mandarin Law Firm, said that if China 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 judgment. Mr. Tian suggested that China Luckin may negotiate privately with the other party to obtain the ownership of the trademark through purchase.
According to the data, the Royal Thai 50R Group is mainly engaged in retail, new energy, tourism, real estate, catering and other businesses, and its subsidiary Thailand Luckin Coffee Co., Ltd. has a Luckin brand trademark legally registered in Thailand, and has now developed and operated more than a dozen Luckin coffee shops in Thailand. Regarding the rumors about the group's background on the Internet, the Red Star News reporter learned from the relevant people of the Thai Domestic Security Operations Command (ISOC) that in Thailand, any company can register to use the word "Royal", and the Thai military will not hold shares in private companies in the name of the military, let alone invest in any company.
So, how strong is Thailand's crackdown on illegal registered trademarks? Manager Tian said that Thailand's laws are also cracking down on malicious preemptive registration, but at present, he has not seen the case file, and according to media reports, it is temporarily impossible to judge that the Thai version of Luckin Coffee has malicious preemptive registration.
Source: National Business Daily
Editor: Sharon