What Is the Luckin Coffee Plagiarism Dispute About?

Luckin Coffee launched a co-branded campaign with the China Open tennis tournament and was accused of plagiarism. An original designer posted comparison images saying a co-branded phone case stand closely matched a work created in December and sold since June, citing the color scheme, rotating tennis ball concept and base font. A sports brand also said a tennis pillow image was very similar.

The campaign promotion ran on September 16. Questioning comments flooded Luckin's official comment section, and as of press time the brand had not responded. It is not the first time the company has faced such questions, and the episode has dealt a blow to its co-branded marketing image, drawing attention from the coffee association and consumers alike.

Luckin Coffee recently launched a co-branded campaign with the China Open tennis tournament, but unexpectedly got caught up in a plagiarism controversy. An original designer posted on social media, accusing Luckin's co-branded phone case stand of being highly similar to their work from last year, with almost identical details ranging from the color scheme, the rotating tennis ball concept, to the font on the base. Meanwhile, another sports brand also discovered that its own tennis pillow promotional image was extremely similar to Luckin's merchandise, and netizens pointed out after comparison that the label position, plush texture, and even the stitching lines were exactly the same. The incident continued to escalate, with questioning voices flooding Luckin's official comment section, but as of press time the brand had not responded. This is not the first time Luckin has faced such questions, and this controversy has dealt a blow to its co-branded marketing image.

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This morning, a blogger posted on social media with multiple comparison images, titled "I actually got plagiarized by Luckin." Less than two hours after the post was published, it attracted a large number of netizens' attention and comments.

The blogger said that in the promotional post Luckin released on September 16 for its co-branded campaign with China Tennis, a phone case stand merchandise appeared that was actually similar to his previously designed original product, and many details were surprisingly consistent, making it hard not to suspect this was "plagiarism."

From the comparison images, whether looking at the overall color scheme and the concept of a rotating tennis ball, or observing details such as the blue base, white font, and stripe proportions, the phone case stand designed by the blogger and the co-branded product launched by Luckin with China Tennis are highly similar, and even the style of the white stripes on the tennis ball and the light and dark positions of the green are completely identical, except that the expression on it was removed and replaced with Luckin's logo.

Regarding the unexpected similarity between the two, the blogger added that he created and produced this design in December last year, and released and put it on sale in June this year, more than three months ago. At present, he only hopes the brand can respect originality, contact him as soon as possible, and properly handle this incident.

It is worth noting that in Luckin's co-branded collaboration with China Tennis this time, more than one merchandise item has fallen into a "plagiarism controversy." According to Luckin's official WeChat post, during this tournament, participating in activities allows customers to obtain multiple merchandise items containing tennis elements. In addition to the phone case stand, these also include cup holders, sports towels, lenticular cards, tennis pillows, tote bags, and more. Among them, the blue tennis pillow also had a "lookalike."

Just this morning, a sports brand posted that, after being reminded by friends around them, it discovered that Luckin's latest co-branded product with the China Open was very similar to its own previously released tennis pillow product. However, because tennis balls on the market all look largely the same, and from the promotional image provided by the brand it was not very easy to see the "similarities" between the two, many netizens guessed that perhaps they just happened to look alike.

But not long afterward, a sharp-eyed netizen took a screenshot of Luckin's official pillow merchandise and found an "original image" on the sports brand's homepage that was almost identical to it, which also left the blogger completely shocked after seeing it.

Through comparison, the two are indeed visibly similar: apart from the different colors and the fact that Luckin's merchandise carries its own brand logo, the label position on the pillow, the plush texture, the lighting angle, and even the stitching lines are all exactly the same. In response, many netizens claiming to work in the design industry said that Luckin's tennis pillow image was clearly obtained by making secondary edits to the brand's original image. The operation steps are not complicated: cut out the image, change the color, and add a logo.

As the incident continues to gain热度, a wave of "questioning" voices has now appeared under Luckin's official account, with comments such as "I heard you plagiarized, copied directly," "Give us an explanation," "Why plagiarize someone else's phone stand?" and "Have you responded to the plagiarism matter?" appearing one after another in the comment section.

Regarding this "plagiarism controversy" it is involved in, as of press time, Luckin Coffee has not made any response. Previously, Front Street Coffee also reminded consumers to pay attention to original designs when choosing coffee merchandise and to support genuine products.

Image source: internet screenshot

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