Ethiopian coffee dispute with Starbucks
The Ethiopian government and Starbucks have become embroiled in a spat over whether the coffee names Yirgacheffe, Sidamo and Harar belong to the African nation.
Ethiopia wants the coffee company to sign a voluntary licensing agreement saying the country owns the rights to the coffee names. Seattle-based Starbucks said that it wanted instead to work with the country to establish a geographic certification for the coffee bean names.
Although US consumers can pay dearly for exotic coffees from Africa and elsewhere, impoverished farmers can struggle to eke out a living growing the beans that are eventually sold at Starbucks and other stores.
Starbucks says it pays above-average prices for its beans and has programmes in place that aim to help farmers.
Ron Layton, president of Light Years IP, which is advising the Ethiopian government on the matter, said the African nation does not want to charge a flat fee as part of the licensing agreement.
However, he said the long-term plan would be to establish the brand and then use that leverage to gradually boost the prices companies like Starbucks pay for those coffees.
Ethiopia is simultaneously trying to secure the rights to the three coffee names via the US Patent and Trademark Office.
The country has succeeded in its attempt to trademark the name Yirgacheffe, but a final decision has not been made on the other two.
A coffee trade group of which Starbucks is a member, the National Coffee Association of USA, has filed protests arguing that the names are generic.
Robert Nelson, president of the association, said he thinks the move to trademark the coffee names could actually hurt farmers economically, since coffee shops may be less likely to buy those types of coffees because of fears that advertising the names would provoke legal action.
Sean O’Connor, an associate professor of law at the University of Washington, said he thinks it would be costly and difficult for Ethiopia to maintain the trademarks on the coffee types, if it received them. That’s because the country would have to show that they were constantly trying to enforce the trademarks or they could risk losing them.
Also, he said, just getting a trademark would not guarantee that the country could demand higher prices.
O’Connor said it might make more sense to seek the geographic certification for those Ethiopian coffee beans, much like wine growers in France have done with the word champagne.
