Poor Farmer

Lessons learned and challenges of the future Intellectual Property (IP) assets such as technological know-how, patents, trademarks, brand names and copyrights increasingly make up the majority of the profits from international trade. Developed countries protect and strategically exploit their IP assets but utilization of IP as a tool of economic development is a new experience for developing countries, especially in Africa. The patent laws in these countries, if any, have been limited to fulfilling the purposes of registering trademarks and issuing licenses. Despite the rich culture and immense potential of natural wealth the country is blessed with, Ethiopia too had lagged behind in identifying and making use of its IP assets. Paradoxically, Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. In this context, the recent ambitious plan by Ethiopia to identify and protect the country’s untapped patent assets is dramatic. The initiative to protect the patent rights associated with cof...

Update Nicholas Sho of Murky Coffee recently met with Gatachew Mengistie, Director General of Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office , in a casual setting, to discuss the Ethiopian coffee names issue that has been escalated to a public dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks. Listen to the podcast in MP3 format, 44 MB The 1 hour 35 minutes and 56 seconds long podacst is also found here . See below for more information and how to subscribe or download. Choose a format: AAC XML feed MP3 XML feed Click here to go to the Portafilter Podcast on iTunes Music Store. MAC OS users, click HERE (for a one-click to subscribe in iTunes) To Download the Podcast Choose your format (AAC or MP3) WIN: right-click and "Save As" OSX: Ctrl-Click and select "Download" My special thanks go to Nicholas Sho for kindly allowing us to share his experience with the wider readers. Coming up: In-depth analysis of Ethiopia's IP strategy

Is the company ready to listen to the poor farmers' plea over there? The Seattle Times reported that Starbucks has opened its first store in Africa on Thursday. The Cairo location will be run by Kuwait-based company M.H. Alshaya, which also operates more than 170 Starbucks stores in Kuwait, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Jordan and Turkey. The coffee shop chain opened its first stores in Brazil about a month ago and has plans to open locations in India and Russia in 2007. The poor coffee farmers in Africa are still asking Starbucks to honor its commitments. Few weeks back, The Standard , posted here , reported that "angry farmers from a coffee factory in Nyeri District have blasted officials of the Starbucks Coffee Company for refusing to respond to their questions on a project the multinational is undertaking in the area.” According to the report, Mr John Kabira, a farmer said "Starbucks interests are only in making profits from our c...

Goliath & David? We are in the last days of year 2006 and Starbucks is still being asked to sign a voluntary Licensing Agreement acknowledging Ethiopia's ownership of its own coffee names. While I keep an eye on any developments through the end of the year, I hope the following summary of the major events and issues surrounding the dispute between Ethiopia and Starbucks helps you reflect on the past several days. The first section of this summary tracks the chronological order of major events since the dispute erupted and the second section enlists links to and a brief description of articles, issues, and references posted on this blog through the end of 2006. TIMELINE 2004 : Starbucks filed application to register “ Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo ” trademark. Ethiopia asked Starbucks to drop its application because the country is preparing to register the names Sidamo and Harar ; Starbucks refused to talk 2005 : NCA filed a letter of protest asking Ethiopia's application t...

Starbucks released a two minutes video on YouTube in response to that of Oxfam. No surprise there for a defensive and desperate party. What is striking in the video interview is the attempt by Dub Hay, Head of Starbucks coffee Team, to mislead the public. Here is the first segment of the one-man show: Question on the screen : Why won't Starbucks sign the trademark agreement with Ethiopia? Dub Hay : ( from narration ) For us to do what we've been asked to do, which is to sign a licensing agreement recognizing the trademark name to the geographies is something against the law. US law does have and allow it, and allow it for this, it does specifically allow it, called certification and we have proposed for this as an alternative; we are very committed to finding a solution with the Ethiopian government as it is in the best interest of the coffee farmers. Simply put, trademark is illegal because the law allows for certification [also]. The argument is insencere but the intrinsic mo...

Few days ago, I posted highlights of Oxfam's call for public action under Starbucks: Honor Your Commitments to Ethiopian Coffee Farmers . The first comment on this came from Starbucks. The comment posted by a writer who preferred to remain anonymous (have you ever read a name when the company comments?) reads: I recommend you visit www.starbucks.com to see what this company does do to support farmers in every country they buy from. All of this bad press is false. December 14, 2006 2:58:00 PM PST At the time, I appreciated Starbucks' response and encouraged everyone to discuss on how to let the Ethiopian coffee farmers benefit from owning the trademarks of their own coffee names. Well, Shayna has a response: Starbucks has taken some good steps, but it can do better. Recognizing Ethiopia’s rights to its coffee names would complement these efforts. Starbucks has made positive contributions to coffee-growing communities, but now that Ethiopia is proposing a long-term poverty solut...

Given the current government's repeated violation of law and order even in terms of the constitution it wrote, its tarnished human rights records, and attempts to silence the public in every way possible including repression and war, the role it plays in such initiatives is rightly questionable. Also, the current marketing system in the country is skewed towards favoring government affiliated middlemen and exporters more than the poor farmers. My upcoming post will discuss this topic in further depth and attempt to explain or suggest systems that will reinforce the farmers' opportunity to directly benefit from this and other projects.