Introduction:After Luckin Coffee and Kweichow Moutai’s joint venture, the酱香拿铁 (Sauce-Aroma Latte), sparked a market craze, a wave of solid beverages with red backgrounds and blue-white diagonal-striped packaging emerged, featuring highly similar names and designs. Do such products constitute trademark infringement? Lawyers point out that even if not registered under specific categories, similar packaging can still breach the law by causing consumer confusion. This article provides an in-depth analysis of the current legal stance, common points of infringement disputes, and practical advice on identifying key design elements.

Following the phenomenon-level success of the Luckin and Moutai collaboration, the Sauce-Aroma Latte, the market quickly saw numerous imitators. These solid beverages not only bear names similar to the original, but also directly replicate the classic packaging composition of a red background paired with blue-white diagonal stripes. Legal experts emphasize that according to trademark regulations, using a similar trademark on identical or similar goods that is likely to cause confusion constitutes an infringement of registered trademark rights.

A quick look at e-commerce platforms reveals that some imitation products have already accumulated sales in the hundreds. For example, one solid beverage marketed as “original flavor coffee” features a cup design extremely similar to the Sauce-Aroma Latte, with marketing slogans that are also highly alike. Although the seller claims to use a baijiu-flavored beverage to deliver the “sauce-aroma” taste and emphasizes that the product is alcohol-free, the overall visual presentation has still drawn market skepticism.

A partner at a law firm in Chongqing pointed out that determining whether an infringement has occurred requires a comprehensive consideration of elements such as the shape of the product, text, patterns, and whether the relevant identifiers have completed the trademark registration process. Notably, several category trademarks for the Sauce-Aroma Latte (including those in the alcoholic beverages and instant foods categories) are currently under application, but no official registration records held by Luckin or Moutai have been found so far.

Some manufacturers argue that the Sauce-Aroma Latte, as a product category, is difficult to register as a trademark, and that the red-blue color scheme lacks clear copyright protection basis domestically. Some even claim that similar promotional slogans had registration cases prior to the Luckin collaboration. However, legal experts caution that trademark rights are not solely dependent on registration status — if an imitation product’s packaging design bears significant similarity to the visual elements of a well-known brand and is likely to mislead consumers, the rights holder can still assert their claims based on actual usage and market recognition.

In practice, common sources of consumer confusion include: the visual layout of a red background with diagonal blue-white stripes, product naming methods that include the keyword “sauce-aroma,” and marketing copy such as “wine meets coffee.” The use of these combined elements without authorization, even if slight adjustments are made in details (such as stripe spacing or font thickness), may still be deemed as deliberate imitation.

The industry advises that when developing new products, brands should not only pay attention to trademark registration status, but also evaluate the uniqueness of the overall packaging design. For businesses referencing the designs of popular products, it is recommended to retain original elements in over 60% of the design, and avoid directly copying distinctive visual features such as color ratios (e.g., red occupying over 70% with a diagonal split composition).

The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.