The red-canned Wong Lo Kat herbal tea produced by Hong Kong-based JDB Group will be sold under the name Jiaduobao in the future, the company announced Wednesday, after it ended up on the losing side in a dispute with the trademark owner Guangzhou Pharmaceutical Holdings.

"The result has been a major hit to JDB… We feel deeply sorry and regret for the result," Wang Yuegui, a brand manager with JDB, told reporters at a press conference in Beijing Wednesday.

"The renaming of the products will confuse consumers, and JDB's sales will be affected in a short term," Chen Geng, vice president and partner at Beijing-based Adfaith Management Consulting, told the Global Times Wednesday.

Media reports said that Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, which also sells Wong Lo Kat herbal tea in a green package, is planning to release red-canned Wong Lo Kat herbal tea in near future.

But Wang from JDB noted that they have the patent right of the red-canned herbal tea, and the company still possesses the formula invented by the Wong Lo Kat herbal tea founder, which the company considers as a key competitive advantage for JDB.

"JDB is very confident it will retain a leading position given our 17 years of experience in the herbal tea sector," said Wang.

But Ni Yidong, a spokesman for Guangzhou Pharmaceutical, told the Global Times Wednesday that the formula is publicly available and Guangzhou Pharmaceutical also has access to the formula.

Ni also said that the company aims to build the Wong Lo Kat brand into a food brand that is not limited to herbal tea.

Currently the Wong Lo Kat brand is worth over 100 billion yuan. Guangzhou Pharmaceutical shares surged to the daily limit of 10 percent in Shanghai Monday after it announced that it has taken back the brand.

"The competition between the two companies may benefit other herbal tea producers. It's good news for consumers too, as the two companies may drop prices to compete for customers," said Liu Hui, an industry analyst with Capital Securities.

In 1997, JDB was granted the right to use the Wong Lo Kat trademark until 2010, and following two extensions of the agreement, JDB was allowed to use the trademark until 2020.

But Guangzhou Pharmaceutical claimed that it extended the usage term because the company's now jailed vice president Li Yimin was taking bribes from JDB's parent company, and 5 million yuan ($792,430) was not a fair price for JDB to pay for the trademark each year.

The Guangzhou-based company filed a complaint with the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission in 2011, and the commission ruled last week that the extensions are invalid and JDB was only authorized to use the Wong Lo Kat brand until 2010.