Luckin Coffee Wins Thai Trademark Appeal, Awarded Record Over 95 Million Baht

The Court of Appeal for Specialised Cases in Thailand on July 8, 2026 upheld a first-instance ruling in the trademark infringement case brought by Luckin Coffee against Thailand's Royal 50R Group. The court found the defendant guilty of bad-faith trademark registration and infringement. It ordered the cancellation of the defendant's registered trademarks for 'LUCKIN COFFEE', the Chinese-language version of the Luckin Coffee mark, and the deer head logo, permanently prohibited the defendant from using these marks in coffee business operations, and required the defendant to change its company name and corporate seal.

On compensation, the court upheld the base damages of 10 million baht and ordered the defendant to pay continuing damages of 100,000 baht per day from March 4, 2024, until the infringement fully ceases. As of the judgment date, the continuing infringement had lasted 856 days, resulting in additional damages of over 85 million baht, bringing the total compensation to more than 95 million baht (approximately $3 million). This is the highest damages award in Thai intellectual property history.

The case began in 2021, just before Luckin Coffee planned to enter the Thai market, when it discovered that multiple local entities had preemptively registered a full set of trademarks including 'LUCKIN COFFEE', the Chinese characters for Luckin Coffee, and the deer head graphic, and had opened imitation stores. In December 2023, Royal 50R Group filed a counterclaim against Luckin Coffee for 10 billion baht (about 2 billion yuan or RMB 2 billion), which the court accepted. In March 2025, the Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court of Thailand issued a first-instance judgment fully supporting Luckin's claims. The defendant appealed.

This second-instance judgment is the first precedent in Thai judicial history to formally recognize the concept of 'bad-faith trademark preemption'. In calculating damages, the court comprehensively considered the nature, scale, and malicious intent of the infringement, as well as the overall negative impact on Luckin Coffee's trademark rights and commercial interests. It recognized that large-scale, persistent bad-faith trademark preemption causes long-term harm, and adopted the method of fixed compensation plus a daily penalty for continuing infringement.