It\u2019s a fast-growing brand vs one of the fashion industry\u2019s biggest names. Hence, the case has attracted so much attention. A popular Chinese tea chain, Molly Tea, vs Louis Vuitton feud over copyrights reached court in Suzhou, China.<\/p>\n
And Louis Vuitton walked away with a Rs 12 crore victory after a Chinese court ruled that Molly Tea\u2019s logo infringed LV\u2019s trademark.<\/p>\n
According to a Chinese media report last week, the court in the eastern Jiangsu province said that the Shenzhen-based tea company had copied the luxury giant\u2019s iconic four-petal flower design. The verdict has led to Chinese social media exploding with opinions.<\/p>\n
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We take a look.<\/p>\n
Louis Vuitton vs Molly tea: The copyright fight<\/p>\n
On Thursday (July 2), the court ordered Molly Tea to pay Louis Vuitton 10.3m yuan (around US$1.5 million and around Rs 12 crore) in damages, saying that its logo appeared too similar to the luxury brand\u2019s famous floral monogram, China Daily reported.<\/p>\n
Suzhou Intermediate People\u2019s Court in eastern China also asked the tea company to pay another 300,000 yuan (around Rs 42,19,548) towards legal expenses. However, these financial penalties are not the lasting problems the tea brand faces.<\/p>\n
The court also directed the popular Chinese tea chain not to use the disputed logo and to issue a public apology across its official website and social media accounts, according to reports.<\/p>\n
The court\u2019s decision has not sat well with Molly Tea, and the company said that it plans to appeal. While the legal proceedings continue, it has updated its branding, replacing the black-and-white logo with a coloured one.<\/p>\n
The feud is not new. Louis Vuitton filed the trademark lawsuit last year after raising concerns over Molly Tea\u2019s branding.<\/p>\n
BBC reported, citing a publication, that the China National Intellectual Property Administration rejected several trademark applications filed by Molly Tea and its affiliated firms in 2024.<\/p>\n
Chinese social media explodes with opinions<\/p>\n
The topic has divided the internet, with some supporting Louis Vuitton, while defenders of Molly Tea have also accused Western luxury brands of using designs inspired by Chinese artefacts.<\/p>\n
Backing Molly Tea, a commenter on Weibo wrote in Mandarin, saying, \u201cHe will have a cup of Molly Tea daily\u201d to show his support for the firm.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive me a break. They\u2019re just taking advantage of the fact that our ancestors didn\u2019t file for patents,\u201d another commenter wrote, BBC reported.<\/p>\n
\u201cSuch basic geometric shapes have been used everywhere throughout history, not just China,\u201d a user said on RedNote, a Chinese social media platform.<\/p>\n
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However, some outrightly supported Louis Vuitton<\/p>\n
They say those who back Molly Tea\u2019s design should \u201cstudy law first\u201d, arguing that LV had first registered the logo; hence, there should not be any room for the dispute.<\/p>\n
Another noted that one brand cannot imitate another, regardless of industry, and that the luxury giant is justified in defending its intellectual property.<\/p>\n
The social media debate continues, and so will the legal battle as Molly Tea prepares to appeal.<\/p>\n
The popular tea brand was founded in 2021. It operates in thousands of stores across China and overseas, including in the US, Canada, Australia and others.<\/p>\n
With inputs from agencies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s a fast-growing brand vs one of the fashion industry\u2019s biggest names. Hence, the case has attracted so…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12704],"tags":[2773,21982,31893,4955,31897,31892,31891,31896,31894,31895],"class_list":["post-48206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-louis-vuitton","tag-louis-vuitton","tag-lv","tag-lv-molly-tea","tag-lvmh","tag-molly-tea-lawsuit","tag-molly-tea-logo","tag-molly-tea-louis-vuitton","tag-molly-tea-lv","tag-molly-tea-lv-lawsuit","tag-molly-tea-menu"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/france\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}