Multiple rejections of lamian trademark grabs expose the failure of attempts to privatize regional brands, urging the industry to focus on supply chain and experience upgrades.
The phenomenon of "Lanzhou lamian" signs quietly being replaced with "Qinghai lamian" in many places has drawn attention, and accompanying this renaming wave is the collective rejection of trademark grabs by two groups for these two national-level food terms. The failed attempt to claim this public regional resource as private property appears on the surface to be a routine trademark law compliance ruling, but it actually exposes the absurd scheme of some traditional street-side snack vendors trying to cash in on the entire industry by establishing a "trademark toll booth" amid the onslaught of capital and anxieties over branding.
Geographic Paradox: A Silent "Profiting by Borrowing a Name"
To understand the chaos behind this renaming and trademark grab, one must first untangle the geographic paradox buried for years within the lamian industry. Of the "Lanzhou lamian" shops spread across streets and alleys nationwide, over 90 percent of their operators do not come from Lanzhou, Gansu, but rather from the lamian workforce originating in places like Hualong County, Haidong City, Qinghai Province. Over the past three decades, Lanzhou contributed an extremely recognizable category identity, while Qinghai natives leveraged their hardworking, street-level penetration to push a bowl of noodles across the country.
This had been a highly tacit partnership of "profiting by borrowing a name," until capital entered the track with high average order values and standardized models.
Capital Impact and the Renaming Wave
As new-style lamian brands like Chen Xianggui and Ma Jiyong entered upscale shopping malls with hefty financing, reshaping traditional lamian into upscale fast dining, traditional Qinghai operators running aging street-side shops felt unprecedented pressure. With customer flow diluted and rents and labor costs climbing steadily, Qinghai practitioners, eager to find a new narrative, attempted to rally their hometown compatriots and even build their own category identity by changing their signs back to "Qinghai lamian."
The Collapse of the Trademark Land-Grab Campaign
However, whether it was industry associations trying to protect local assets or commercial capital keenly sensing an opportunity, all turned their crooked minds to trademark monopolization. Tianyancha intellectual property data clearly records the collapse of this land-grab campaign: whether it was the "Lanzhou lamian" trademark applied for by the Lanzhou Beef Lamian Industry Association, or the "Qinghai lamian" related trademarks hastily registered by a Shanghai catering company, in core categories such as catering and accommodation and convenience foods, all are now without exception in rejected or invalid status.
The row of red invalid marks on Tianyancha clearly announces the complete bankruptcy of the commercial vision to privatize a public category.
The underlying logic of trademark law is brutally simple: widely recognized geographical names and generic food names must never be allowed to be privatized as exclusive assets by any single association or private enterprise.
If any association or company were allowed to claim "Lanzhou lamian" or "Qinghai lamian" as its own, it would mean that hundreds of thousands of street-side noodle shops nationwide would overnight become fat sheep hunted for infringement damages or forced to pay franchise fees. This attempt to reap industry rents by squatting on trademarks is, in essence, a plunder of the industry assets accumulated through decades of hard work by hundreds of thousands of lamian practitioners.
Goodbye to Illusions: Where the Real Moat Lies
With the illusion of trademark land-grabbing gone, the geographic card game in the lamian track remains brutal. Changing the sign to Qinghai or Lanzhou simply cannot resolve the underlying crisis facing traditional lamian shops. In an era where back-of-house standardization and supply chains are extremely mature, what consumers are willing to pay for is no longer a vague regional symbol, but a clean and hygienic dining environment, stable and high-quality ingredient fulfillment, and a highly cost-effective single-item experience.
Building a commercial moat through trademark squatting is impossible, and frequently changing signs cannot stop the wave of supply chain upgrades. For the vast community of lamian practitioners, rather than exhausting energy fighting over the name of a public category, it is better to pragmatically tackle the critical weaknesses of supply chain cost reduction and product innovation. Without exceptional fulfillment capabilities and store experience, no matter how resounding the regional name card, it ultimately remains just a paper pie that cannot be cashed in.
