Ethiopia takes coffee trademark to intellectual property court

After all, the Ethiopia coffee trademark initiative is alive although the project appears to have run out of steam due mainly to bureaucracy and lack of leadership from the government's side. I am one of the strong proponents of the idea of utilizing Intellectual Property resources as a leverage to demand for a fair share from the retail prices of the finest coffee brands. I want and hope to see Ethiopia's impoverished coffee farmers start benefiting from the world renowned brands, which are the results of the farmers' hard work. This dream was recently overshadowed by the unexpected twist of events that happened in the country following the establishment of the ECX. For one, it has been difficult to comprehend how the country can pursue a forward-looking brilliant marketing strategies while looking backwards and resort to bundling brand name coffee lots with commodities. To me, the very idea of capitalizing on the coffee IP resources is essentially a departure from the status-quo, i.e. the trading of these coffee brands as commodities.

The government has never explained its positions on the coffee trademarking initiative when it abruptly decided last year to trade all of the country's coffees at the commodity exchange. This ambiguity is, I believe, what led many people to perceive that Ethiopia might have abandoned the coffee trademarking idea. Apparently, it has not, so we will try to explore the current status of the project in conjunction to the merits or implications of ECX to the coffee trademarking project.
--------
The Mainichi Daily News

November 14, 2009

An ongoing spat between the Ethiopian government and the All Japan Coffee Association has made it to the courts over the branding of two varieties of coffee in Japan.

Lawyers for the northeast African nation have argued that the names of the Sidamo and Yirgacheffe coffee varieties are trademarked in Europe and the U.S. during a first hearing at the Intellectual Property High Court on Thursday.

The trademark battle began in March, when the Japan Patent Office refused to allow the trademarking of Sidamo, also the name of a former province in southern Ethiopia, and Yirgacheffe, the name of a town in the same region, saying monopoly use of the words would not be in the public's interest.

The Ethiopian government filed suit in August, arguing that as place names they had no significance in Japan and that they should be considered brand names.

"There are almost no consumers out there who would recognize them as two Ethiopian coffee varieties," says the association. "If they are trademarked and prices rise, there are doubts that buyers will follow."