By Wondwossen Mezlekia for The Ethiopian American * July 01, 2007 It was about a millennium ago that the legendary goat herder Kaldi discovered coffee in Kaffa, Ethiopia, according to substantiated folklore. Since then, the bean has traversed continents, transforming societies, religions, and economies while Ethiopia, the birthplace, watches. Today, coffee is the second most traded commodity on the international market next to oil, but unlike oil, coffee has not brought wealth to its country of origin. The aggressive tendency of globalization to deprive its weaker members from claiming their rightful share of the value chain has started to alarm global citizens. Ethiopia, too, has finally woken up just in time for its new millennium (Julian calendar), and is now sorting out intellectual property (IP) laws, which experts believe are promising tools to help the country catch up with the rest of the corporate world. The efforts to utilize IP tools for digging the country out of poverty, h...