Recently, the transnational trademark tug-of-war that spanned several years for well-known domestic coffee brands to go overseas has finally come to an end.
In July 2026, Thailand's Court of Appeal for Specialized Cases made a final judgment, concluding that the Thai Royal 50R Group constituted malicious trademark squatting, and ordered it to cancel the registered Luckin-related trademarks, permanently prohibit the use of "LUCKIN COFFEE", "Luckin Coffee" and the deer head logo in the coffee business, and pay a total compensation of more than 95 million baht (approximately RMB 19.18 million at the time), setting a new high in the history of compensation for Thai intellectual property cases.
This rights protection began in 2022, and the process has been reversed repeatedly. It has triggered extensive discussions from all walks of life on the protection of legal brand rights holders in Thailand and abroad. This case also became the first case in Thailand’s judicial history to formally recognize the concept of “bad faith trademark squatting” and apply the priority principle to cancel improperly registered trademarks.
In the context of companies going overseas, the value of this case is not only "win", but also gives Chinese brands more confidence when using international rules to protect their own rights and interests. Brands are also reminded that when going overseas, they should prepare trademark layout and risk prevention in advance, and put intellectual property protection first.
Many teams understand "going overseas" and still focus on the product: formula, supply chain, channels, live broadcast, and launch, and start running first; intellectual property rights are placed in the position of "licensing after listing." The problem is that trademark rights are territorial, and registration and protection in China do not automatically extend to exclusive rights in other jurisdictions. Even if the Madrid international registration is extended to various member states, it still must go through the review, announcement, objection and renewal procedures. It is not a "one-time submission, exemption from inspection in multiple countries".
Therefore, when companies go overseas to Southeast Asia, they must also lay out their intellectual property rights when bringing products. The "layout" should fall on at least four levels.
The first is the geographical layout: break down "Southeast Asia" into specific jurisdictions, and check the first-to-file principle, review cycle, announcement and opposition rules, use requirements and differences in well-known protection one by one.
The second is object layout: text, graphics, combination logo, foreign language translation, packaging and decoration, store visuals, domain name and platform account are all counted together to avoid only protecting the trademark and missing the appearance and font size.
The third is category layout: products and services cover existing businesses and foreseeable extensions to avoid being left blank when the current business is sufficient and the products are expanded.
The fourth is the relationship layout: the contracts of foundries, general agents, and distributors clearly state the brand ownership, authorization scope, term, renewal, and post-termination treatment to prevent being preempted during the cooperation period or losing rights after the cooperation ends.
In actual combat, there are two tricks that cannot be omitted.
First, the project should be searched first, and the name should be applied immediately; press conferences, investment promotion, and platform store openings should not be regarded as irreversible actions before the core logo of key markets is finalized.
Second, after discovering preemptive registration, quickly conduct diversion assessment: objection, invalidation, non-use revocation, transfer negotiation and infringement litigation to simultaneously compare the time limit, evidence and cost, and do not turn the program selection into a single-choice question.
The Ruixing case also reminds that the rights chain itself must be clean: if there are gaps in trademark transfer, entity inheritance or authorization documents, even if there is prior physical use, it may be procedurally frustrated.
When a brand goes overseas, its products are the stepping stone, and its intellectual property is its house number. If you want to gain a firm foothold overseas, you can't just calculate the container account, but you must also lay out your intellectual property rights before the container is shipped.
