Starbucks the Seattle based Coffee giant has run into a storm of controversy over allegations by Oxfam that Starbucks had objected to moves by Ethiopia to trademark some of its more famous coffee names as brands.
Oxfam claims that Starbuck has asked the American National Coffee Association (NCA) to block Ethiopia's recent attempt to trademark brands such as Harar, Sidamo, Yirgacheffe.
The Ethiopian government had filed an application in the US to trademark these names which are names of regions of Ethiopia where the coffee is grown. Analysts believe that the move could substantially boost the earnings Ethiopia makes form coffee exports by about $88 million a year.
The NCA claim that the hurt the Ethiopian coffee market not aid it, and by extension any problems for Ethiopian growers will hurt the American coffee industry.
Starbucks which uses these names on a number of products it sells has countered these allegations by denying they opposed the application. They stressed that they had offered to work with the Ethiopian government to set up a certification scheme which they believe would be more effective.
The plan to trademark Ethiopian specialty coffee names is being developed and run by the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) and undertaken with some grant funding from the UK's Department for International Development.
Under the same EIPO project, Harar, Yirgacheffe and Sidamo are being trademarked in other coffee consuming countries including Canada, Japan and the EU.
Source: Click Afrique