On 27 July 2026, Luckin Coffee, a leading Chinese coffee brand, officially announced that it had won a trademark infringement case against a rival company in Thailand. The case is considered historic in the Thai judicial system, as it formally endorsed the concept of "bad-faith trademark registration" — a ruling that will set an important legal precedent for international and Chinese brands seeking to protect their business interests in Thailand.
The opposing party in the case was 50R Group Co., Ltd., which had fraudulently registered Luckin Coffee's trademark before the genuine brand had entered the Thai market. The company mirrored the deer-head logo by flipping it from right to left, and imitated the store décor and product menu to such an extent that it caused significant confusion among consumers.
One news source in China reported that "50R Group registered in Thailand with 51% Thai shareholders and 49% Chinese shareholders. Although the Thai side held the majority stake, the actual controller and the party running all business operations was Chinese, exploiting loopholes in Thai-Chinese law."
Tilleke & Gibbins, the law firm handling the case on behalf of Luckin Coffee, revealed that the Thai court ordered the cancellation of the defendant's trademark registrations, prohibited the use of the name "Luckin Coffee," the Chinese name "瑞幸咖啡," and the deer-head logo, and further ordered the defendant to change its company name and seal. The Court of Appeal upheld the first-instance court's ruling, ordering the defendant to pay 10 million baht in damages plus 100,000 baht per day in ongoing damages from the date of filing until the infringement ceased. The total infringement period reached 856 days, bringing the combined damages to more than 95 million baht, or approximately 3 million US dollars (approximately 21.5 million yuan) — the highest damages award in the history of Thai intellectual property litigation.
Looking back, in August 2022, Luckin Coffee had announced that it had not opened any branches in Thailand and that the existing stores were imitations. Subsequently, in December 2023, the company lost at the first-instance level, and the rival company counter-claimed damages of as much as 10 billion baht (approximately 2 billion yuan), arguing that it had legally registered the trademark under Thai law since 2020. The case later took a dramatic turn when the court weighed the evidence and ultimately ruled in Luckin Coffee's favour.
It has also been reported that 50R Group Co., Ltd. has engaged in a broader pattern of squatting on the trademarks of numerous other well-known Chinese brands, including Shunfeng (SF Express), JK Express, Nongfu Spring, and Wuliangye, among others. The company's conduct is characterised as opportunistic mass trademark registration aimed at extracting benefits through litigation or settlement, without actually conducting any genuine business.
