On July 8, 2026, Thailand's Specialized Case Appeal Court issued a second-instance ruling in the trademark infringement case brought by Luckin Coffee against Thailand's Royal 50R Group, dismissing the defendant's appeal and fully upholding the first-instance judgment. The court found that Royal 50R Group had engaged in bad-faith trademark squatting and infringement, ordered the cancellation of its registered Luckin-related trademarks, prohibited the use of the "LUCKIN COFFEE" and "瑞幸咖啡" word marks as well as the deer-head graphic logo, and awarded cumulative compensation of over 95 million Thai baht (approximately RMB 19 million) to China's Luckin Coffee.
This case is understood to be the first representative precedent in Thai judicial history to formally recognize the concept of "bad-faith trademark squatting," and it is also the intellectual property case with the highest known compensation amount in Thailand to date.
The case originated from a dispute between the two parties over trademark rights in Thailand to the "LUCKIN COFFEE" word mark and the deer-head graphic logo. In December 2018, Thailand's Royal 50R Group applied to register the "LUCKIN COFFEE" word mark and deer-head graphic logo, which were similar to Luckin's marks, and obtained registration in 2020, subsequently opening several coffee shops using the relevant logos. In 2021, when China's Luckin Coffee applied for trademark registration in Thailand, it discovered that its core trademarks had been preemptively registered, and immediately filed a lawsuit with Thailand's Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court.
In 2022, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court ruled in favor of China Luckin's main claims in the first instance. However, in 2023, the Specialized Case Appeal Court reversed the decision and ruled against Luckin on the grounds that it lacked standing to sue at the time the lawsuit was filed, without making a determination on the substantive ownership of the trademark rights in dispute between the parties. Subsequently, Royal 50R Group separately sued China's Luckin, claiming 10 billion Thai baht (approximately RMB 2 billion) in damages.
In March 2024, China's Luckin filed another lawsuit, this time reorganizing its evidence around prior rights to the trademarks in question, brand awareness, and the defendant's bad-faith squatting, based on the provisions on well-known trademark protection under the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property. Luckin submitted to the court materials including its business and store data, registration records of the trademarks in question in multiple countries and regions, and pointed out that the group had applied to register multiple well-known Chinese brand trademarks, in order to demonstrate that its registration of the trademarks in question was not made in good faith. In February 2025, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court ruled that China's Luckin held prior and superior rights to the "LUCKIN COFFEE" word mark and the deer-head graphic logo, and confirmed that the defendant had engaged in bad-faith registration and infringement. Royal 50R Group appealed again, and was ultimately dismissed by Thailand's Specialized Case Appeal Court on July 8, 2026, which upheld the original judgment.
In terms of compensation, the court ordered the defendant to pay China's Luckin a base compensation of 10 million Thai baht, plus ongoing compensation at the rate of 100,000 Thai baht per day from March 4, 2024, until the infringement completely ceases. As of the second-instance ruling, the ongoing compensation had exceeded 85 million Thai baht, bringing the total cumulative compensation to over 95 million Thai baht. Since the ongoing compensation will continue to accrue until the infringement fully stops, the final compensation amount may still increase further.
Public information shows that the defendant in this case, Thailand's Royal 50R Group, is a local Thai diversified business enterprise with operations spanning retail, new energy, tourism, real estate, and catering, among other sectors. It has previously squatted on trademarks of multiple well-known Chinese brands, including SF Express, J&T Express, Chow Tai Fook, and Nayuki.
