Since the trademark dispute between Starbucks and Ethiopia was officially declared to be over on June 20, 2007, there has been a growing skepticism about the very settlement of the matter. Neither side of the parties is willing to disclose the details of the agreement they say have signed. For the past thirty days, I have been trying to get first hand information from the parties to no tangible success. Starbucks would not respond to my repeated calls. From the government’s side, I was privileged to speak with Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Washington and Getachew Mengistie, Director of Ethiopia’s Intellectual Property Office on general matters but, to this date, I have not gotten the answers to the questions I have gathered from readers of this blog. In the coming days, I will publish the questions, hopefully with (if not, without) the government’s response. In the mean time, the saga continues as Addis Fortune entertains the exchange of letters between the government’s repre...