NEW YORK (LN) — A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction June 8 blocking a New York franchisee from using the Molly Tea brand, trademarks, or social media accounts during litigation with its Shenzhen-based franchisor, Shenzhen Molly Tea Food and Beverage Management Co., Ltd.
U.S. District Judge John P. Cronan ordered that MHL NY LLC and its affiliates surrender control of Instagram accounts @mollyteamood and @mollyteany, the RedNote account “茉莉奶白纽约 MollyTea NYC,” the website mollyteany.com, and any other social media or e-commerce accounts tied to U.S. Trademark Registration Nos. 7996117 and 8205316 within 48 hours.
The injunction covers five locations: 2857 Broadway in Manhattan, 28-07 Jackson Avenue in Long Island City, 63 Mott Street in Manhattan, 5909 8th Avenue in Brooklyn, and 37-11C Prince Street in Flushing. Defendants are barred from operating any Molly Tea store or commercial activity using the intellectual property at those addresses or any other U.S. location.
The order also blocks defendants from using the brand on platforms including WeChat, Weibo, Xiaohongshu, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, YouTube, Dianping, DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Seamless, Postmates, ChowNow, and HungryPanda.
Plaintiffs must post a $0.10 million bond by June 15, 2026, at 5:00 p.m. Defendants have 30 days to file a verified compliance report detailing actions taken to obey the injunction.