We set up a framework in which in-medium charmonium properties are constrained by thermal lattice QCD and subsequently implemented into a thermal rate equation enabling the comparison with experimental data in heavy-ion collisions. Specifically, we e
valuate phenomenological consequences for charmonium production originating from two different scenarios in which either the free or the internal energy are identified with the in-medium 2-body potential between charm and anti-charm quarks. These two scenarios represent $J/psi$ melting temperatures of approximately 1.25,$T_c$ (weak binding) and 2,$T_c$ (strong binding), respectively. Within current uncertainties in dissociation rates and charm-quark momentum spectra, both scenarios can reproduce the centrality dependence of inclusive $J/psi$ yields in nuclear collisions at SPS and RHIC reasonably well. However, the strong-binding scenario associated the the internal energy as the potential tends to better reproduce current data on transverse momentum spectra at both SPS and RHIC.
