Wanglaoji licensed its 1828 tea to JDB — a bribe voided the deal, both lost the brand

Wanglaoji (王老吉) was a 170-year-old herbal tea recipe, founded in 1828 by Wong Chat Bong in Guangdong. After 1949, the Wang family took the brand to Hong Kong while mainland assets passed to state-owned Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings. The brand existed quietly — a regional remedy in green cardboard cartons, worth about 80 million RMB a year by the early 2000s.

In 1997, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical licensed the Wanglaoji trademark to Hong Kong's Hung To Group, whose subsidiary JDB Group produced a red-can version. The license ran to May 2010. JDB transformed the brand with aggressive TV advertising, the slogan '怕上火喝王老吉' (Fear Heatstroke? Drink Wanglaoji), and nationwide distribution. By 2008, red-can Wanglaoji exceeded 10 billion RMB in annual sales — the top-selling beverage can in China. JDB had built a 10 billion RMB brand on a licensed trademark.

In 2002 and 2003, two additional agreements extended the license to 2013 and then 2020. Both extensions were later found to have been bought: HK$3 million paid to a Guangzhou Pharmaceutical executive to sign them. That voided the contracts. In April 2011, Guangzhou Pharmaceutical took the dispute to arbitration.

On 9 May 2012, the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission ruled both extensions invalid. The trademark license had expired on 2 May 2010 — JDB had been using the brand without rights for two years. JDB renamed its product to 'JDB' (加多寶) overnight, rebuilt packaging, and launched a counter-campaign claiming JDB was the 'real' Wanglaoji. Guangzhou Pharmaceutical started producing its own red cans. The two brands fought in court, on TV, and in every retailer's cooler for years.