(Yicai) Dec. 5 -- The company behind Thailand’s Luckin Coffee has said the Chinese coffee chain that shares the same name has lost a lawsuit in which the Xiamen-based firm alleged trademark infringement. 

Thailand's Central Intellectual Property and International Trade Court announced that China's Luckin Coffee has lost its case against 50R Group over trademark infringement, the Bangkok-based firm said on social media, citing a foreign news article that was based on Thai media reports. 

The Thai courts system has not yet made the latest rulings public. 

China's Luckin Coffee found that its trademark was previously registered by 50R after it applied to do so with Thailand's IP office when launching its business in the southeast Asian country in July 2021, according to the IP&IT Court case. It then proceeded to sue various parties in Thailand over the trademark. 

50R set up Thailand's Luckin Coffee in March 2019 and started operating stores in December 2020. Based on social media photos, the only difference from the Chinese brand is that the deer in its logo faces left, while that in its namesake's logo faces right. 

China’s Luckin Coffee, founded in 2017, said in August last year that the Thai stores bearing the same name were counterfeits.

In the Thai court’s first-instance ruling in November last year, China’s Luckin Coffee won its case. The chain's operator required the defendant to cancel the relevant trademark registration and cease using it. 50R appealed in March, and the court opened the case again on Nov. 30. 

China's Luckin Coffee has sped up its overseas expansion in recent years. It has 13,273 outlets globally, opening 2,437 stores in the third quarter alone, including 11 in Singapore, its operator's C-suite noted on the firm’s nine-month earnings conference call.

China's Luckin Coffee will continue its overseas business expansion, said Chairman and Chief Executive Guo Jinyi, who added that the coffee house will still boost its investment in the Chinese market, further bolstering its leading status.

Editors: Shi Yi, Martin Kadiev