Nav: Home > Coffee >

Capitalizing on Mixue Bingcheng's Popularity?! A Milk Tea Brand Ordered to Pay 500,000 in Compensation

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: qjcoffeex. Where there's popularity, there's a market. Where there's a market, there's profit. Driven by profit, in recent years, the new tea beverage

For more professional coffee knowledge exchange and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add the personal WeChat of FrontStreet Coffee, WeChat ID: qjcoffeex.

Trademark Infringement in the Beverage Industry: A Costly Lesson

Where there's popularity, there's a market; where there's a market, there's profit. Driven by financial interests, the new tea beverage industry has gradually gained mainstream attention in recent years. However, this has been followed by numerous malicious trademark infringement incidents. Brands that became popular often found themselves targeted by "counterfeit brands." Well-known brands like Heytea, Lu Xi Alley, and Cha Yan Yue Se have all experienced "knockoff" incidents. These counterfeit brands not only divert some customer traffic but also tend to make consumers question the products, reducing the brand's credibility.

Recently, a milk tea shop named Mixue Yue was sued for riding on the popularity of the tea beverage giant Mixue Ice Cream & Tea. Because its text and trademark were very similar to Mixue Ice Cream & Tea's series of trademarks, Mixue Ice Cream & Tea filed a lawsuit against Mixue Yue's parent company, Mixue Yue (Guangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., for trademark infringement. The final judgment has now been rendered in the trademark infringement case against Mixue Ice Cream & Tea, with Mixue Yue ordered to pay 512,184 yuan in compensation to Mixue Ice Cream & Tea.

After the first trial, Mixue Yue Company appealed because they were dissatisfied with the judgment. However, the court believed that the text and trademark of Mixue Yue were indeed very similar to Mixue Ice Cream & Tea's series of trademarks, with obvious intention to ride on their popularity, seriously infringing on Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Company's trademark rights. Therefore, the court rejected Mixue Yue Company's appeal and upheld the first-instance court's judgment that Mixue Yue Company and its legal representative Liang should jointly compensate the trademark holder for economic losses.

Public information shows that Mixue Ice Cream & Tea was founded in Zhengzhou in 1997 as an ice cream and tea beverage brand. After more than 20 years of development, the number of its global stores has reached 22,276, covering 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions in China, as well as overseas countries such as Vietnam and Indonesia.

On September 22, 2022, information on the official website of the China Securities Regulatory Commission showed that Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Co., Ltd.'s A-share listing application has been accepted and formally pre-disclosed in its prospectus, planning to list on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, with GF Securities as the lead underwriter.

As for Mixue Yue (Guangzhou) Technology Co., Ltd., according to enterprise information from Qichacha, it was established in September 2019. The company is located in Baiyun District, Guangzhou, with a registered capital of 200,000 yuan. Its business scope includes: natural science research and experimental development; educational consulting services (excluding educational and training activities requiring licensing); business training (excluding training that requires licensing such as educational training and vocational skills training); food operation (sales of pre-packaged food), etc. The current enterprise status is already cancelled.

According to reports, there are already many "Mixue Yue" beverage stores in the market, but no information about Mixue Yue Company's commercial franchise filing could be found on the unified platform of the Ministry of Commerce's business system.

Strategic Trademark Protection

Tianyancha shows that Mixue Ice Cream & Tea Co., Ltd. has a total of 2,161 trademark information items, of which 1,517 trademarks have been successfully registered. Core trademarks such as "Mixue Ice Cream & Tea," "Snow King and Image," "Mi Le Xue," and "Mi Xue" have all been registered in all categories. So why register so many unrelated categories when applying for trademarks? This is proof that Mixue Ice Cream & Tea really has a strong awareness of trademark protection.

This is also a defensive trademark approach. The same trademark owner registers the same famous trademark on different kinds of goods to prevent others from using the famous trademark and causing adverse effects. After defensive trademark registration, they are not necessarily used, so they are generally not easily approved for registration. However, once successfully registered, they are not restricted by the requirement that trademarks must be used to be maintained.

Conclusion

As market competition becomes increasingly fierce, some opportunistic individuals will use others' registered trademarks to "walk the edge of the law" to open up sales channels and markets for themselves. Registering defensive trademarks is a "sharp weapon" to prevent others from riding on brand popularity, and while protecting trademarks, it can also reserve some "space" for the company's future development.

Those who deliberately attach themselves to famous trademarks and cause consumer confusion will eventually face legal sanctions. To prevent trademark infringement, registering defensive trademarks will be the first choice for many large companies.

Image source: Internet