Oxfam calls Starbucks' to support licensing agreement with Ethiopia over coffee varieties

Food & Drink Weekly, Nov 13, 2006

Global aid organization Oxfam International urged coffee company Starbucks Corp. to support a bid by the Ethiopian government to obtain trademark protection in the United States for a number of coffee varieties, the organization said in a press release. Calling a request by the company that a trade group file a letter of protest against the registrations "indefensible," the organization said that the coffee giant should instead be setting an example for other coffee purchasers by supporting a proposed licensing agreement that would require the coffee industry to recognize Ethiopia's right to the coffee names, regardless of whether registration is granted.

Oxfam said that the licensing agreement would allow Ethiopia to pursue a strategy of enhancing its trading power, in addition to helping its coffee sector and the millions of poor coffee farmers who cultivate the crop.

In response, Starbucks submitted its own proposal encouraging a trademark certification program in lieu of formal registration, and said that the program suggested by the government would likely harm, not help Ethiopia's farmers.

Last year, the Ethiopian government, through the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO), filed applications to register three of its most famous coffee names--Sidamo, Harar, and Yirgacheffe--with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. According to Oxfam, securing the rights to these names would enable the Ethiopian coffee industry to capture additional value from their successful coffee trade by increasing control over the market and enabling the farmers who grow and cultivate the beans to garner a greater share of the retail price. According to Oxfam's press officer Helen DaSilva, "Coffee is the second-most traded commodity in the world," with statistics from the National Coffee Association of the USA (NCA) showing that in the second quarter of 2006, the U.S. alone imported an estimated 780 million pounds of coffee a year.

Ethiopian embassy staff and advisers met with the NCA president to discuss a letter of protest that was filed against the Sidamo and Harar trademark applications filed by the government of Ethiopia in March 2005. When asked by staffers why the NCA waited until August 2006 to file a letter of protest, the president of the NCA informed staffers that Starbucks had urged action by bringing the applications to the attention of the NCA.

Oxfam estimated that if registration were successful, Ethiopia's coffee industry and farmers could earn an estimated $88 million per year in addition to current coffee revenues estimated to be $150 million a year, according to international trade data. Seth Petchers, leader of the Oxfam "Make Trade Fair" coffee campaign, said that "Starbucks's behavior is indefensible. The company must change tactics and set an example for others by supporting Ethiopia's plan to help millions of struggling farmers earn a greater share of the profits."

Unlike trademark protection, geographic certification protects a region of origin, characteristic, or other quality of a good (e.g., 100 percent Colombian Coffee, Washington Apples, etc.). The term is generally not utilized by the owner of the registration, but instead by third parties who wish to certify that their products contain authentic goods. Starbucks considers the certification approach to be "far more effective than registering trademarks for geographically descriptive terms."