Starbucks to settle Ethiopia coffee trademark dispute
Published 9:00 pm Thursday, May 3, 2007
SEATTLE – Starbucks expects to complete a licensing, distribution and marketing deal with Ethiopia this month that would settle a dispute over trademarks for three coffees produced in the African nation.
In a joint statement Thursday, neither the Seattle-based coffee retailer nor the Ethiopian government released details about an agreement in principle that both said they signed after two days of talks in Seattle.
Ethiopia wants to secure rights to three coffee names – Harar, Sidamo and Yirgacheffe – through the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. So far it has trademarked the name Yirgacheffe, but a final decision has yet to be made on the others.
“Ethiopia is recognized as the historic birthplace of coffee and the source of some of the finest coffee in the world,” Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz said in the statement. “We’re extremely excited to continue to deepen our relationship with the government of Ethiopia.”
Getachew Mengistie, director general of the Ethiopia Intellectual Property Office, said his country is “committed to work in partnership with all international specialty coffee companies and distributors.”
“We realize our approach to trademarking and licensing these coffee brands that originate in and represent the best of Ethiopia’s coffee heritage is a new approach that not only meets the needs of small Ethiopian fine coffee farmers and traders, but also the coffee roasting and distributing companies and their customers,” Getachew said.
Starbucks Corp., the world’s largest specialty coffee retailer, has opposed Ethiopia’s trademarking efforts, saying instead that it wants to help officials establish a geographic certification for the coffee bean names, as is done with Washington state apples or Hawaii’s Kona coffee.
