| |
Main
Date: 29 Nov 2006 22:11:14
From:
Subject: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
http://www.ng2000.com/news.php?tp=coffee
Oxfam has pressed US coffee giant Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark
three coffee beans and end a dispute in which the company has been
accused of heavy-handed tactics.
|
|
| |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 06:36:05
From: Omniryx@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
Didn't I hear on the Beeb this morning that Ethiopia has turned down
Starbucks?
|
| | |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 14:58:41
From: Marshall
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
On 30 Nov 2006 06:36:05 -0800, "Omniryx@gmail.com" <Omniryx@gmail.com >
wrote:
>Didn't I hear on the Beeb this morning that Ethiopia has turned down
>Starbucks?
I meant that Starbucks is not involved in the trademark applications.
They would very much like Ethiopia and Oxfam to stop their media
campaigns.
Marshall
|
| |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 14:26:33
From: Marshall
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
On 29 Nov 2006 22:11:14 -0800, admin@ng2000.com wrote:
>http://www.ng2000.com/news.php?tp=coffee
>
>Oxfam has pressed US coffee giant Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark
>three coffee beans and end a dispute in which the company has been
>accused of heavy-handed tactics.
Yes, Oxfam USA has launched a very heavy-handed and misleading
campaign, which targets Starbucks because of its visibility.
The issue is a complex controversy that began because Europe does not
grant non-European producers the same protection of origin
identification which it grants to European producers. The Ethiopian
governments then began a program to register regional trademarks in
Europe to get around this.
Unfortunately, they are trying to do the same thing in the U.S., even
though the U.S. does protect foreign coffee origin names. The
Ethiopian government can already take you to court in the U.S., if you
put "Sidamo" on a bag of Brazil milds.
But, were the Ethiopian government to succeed in its campaign, it
could sue U.S. roasters and shopkeepers, both large and small, for
putting "Sidamo" on a bag of genuine Sidamo coffee, if they had failed
to negotiate licenses with Ethiopian government ministers to use the
name. The Ethiopian ministers could also dictate the style and size of
print and how prominently the name is featured on the bag.
They could also restrict who is allowed to sell Ethiopian coffees and
demand licensing fees, although they are not currently requiring fees
for the few U.S. licenses they have granted (for "Yrgacheffe," the
only registration allowed so far).
Oxfam is not discussing any of this in their propaganda campaign. It's
just "Starbucks wants Ethiopian farmers to starve."
The NCA is actively opposing this program. SCAA initially opposed it,
but withdrew for internal reasons. Starbucks is not involved.
Marshall
|
| |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 10:49:28
From: Omniryx@gmail.com
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
Starbucks says they would get more, not less, but their reasoning was a
bit vague.
Jack's "Let 'em eat cake" attitude toward coffee farmers living on
subsistence incomes seems to me more than a little unfeeling. I do
agree about Oxfam, however, and I say that as a contributor to Oxfam.
While it does a helluva lot of good work, it truly has become the moral
pecksniff of the universe.
Jack Denver wrote:
> Link doesn't show anything about Ethiopia for me. NG2000 is some kind of
> click farm on top of google.
>
> Here is a direct link to Oxfam's idiotic campaign:
>
>
> http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/starbucks
>
>
> Maybe they could help right more injustices in the world - New York
> "champagne", Wisconsin "Swiss cheese", etc. Write to the chairman of Kraft,
> Taylor Wine, etc. Or maybe they could just help starving kids directly the
> way they are supposed to and leave obscure trademark disputes to the court
> system where they belong.
>
> They show a wonderful graphic where the coffee farmers of Ethiopia get 10
> cents out of every $ spent on their coffee. This is of course no different
> than the amount a wheat farmer in Kansas gets relative to the price of a
> loaf of bread - that's what a market system is all about - if they don't
> like it, the Ethiopians can open a chain of stores serving overpriced coffee
> and sugar flavored hot milk of their own. If Starbucks caved and the
> Ethiopian government achieved all of their goals, how much would the coffee
> farmers (as opposed to the ministers who would pocket the license fees) get
> out of that dollar then? 11 cents? I doubt it would be that much.
>
>
>
>
>
>
> <admin@ng2000.com> wrote in message
> news:1164867074.426687.277610@14g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
> > http://www.ng2000.com/news.php?tp=coffee
> >
> > Oxfam has pressed US coffee giant Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark
> > three coffee beans and end a dispute in which the company has been
> > accused of heavy-handed tactics.
> >
|
| | |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 14:32:09
From: Jack Denver
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
It's a big mistake to confuse "feeling" good to DOING good. Markets send
people signals as to what they should be doing and if you don't pay
attention to the signals you'll only prolong your misery. America once had
a large contingent of subsistence farmers too but the market eventually sent
most of them to the cities for more productive labor and those that remained
had their incomes increased as a result of mechanization. If it's only you
and your kids and your donkey, you're never going to make a decent living no
matter how many trademarks they take out on Sidamo. I'm in favor of any
program that gets people off the farm, not one that keeps them there longer.
I say this as a farm boy who never wants to see (or smell) a live chicken
again.
<Omniryx@gmail.com > wrote in message
news:1164912568.769017.275710@h54g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Starbucks says they would get more, not less, but their reasoning was a
> bit vague.
>
> Jack's "Let 'em eat cake" attitude toward coffee farmers living on
> subsistence incomes seems to me more than a little unfeeling.
|
| |
Date: 30 Nov 2006 13:40:08
From: Jack Denver
Subject: Re: Oxfam presses Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark its coffee
|
Link doesn't show anything about Ethiopia for me. NG2000 is some kind of
click farm on top of google.
Here is a direct link to Oxfam's idiotic campaign:
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/campaigns/coffee/starbucks
Maybe they could help right more injustices in the world - New York
"champagne", Wisconsin "Swiss cheese", etc. Write to the chairman of Kraft,
Taylor Wine, etc. Or maybe they could just help starving kids directly the
way they are supposed to and leave obscure trademark disputes to the court
system where they belong.
They show a wonderful graphic where the coffee farmers of Ethiopia get 10
cents out of every $ spent on their coffee. This is of course no different
than the amount a wheat farmer in Kansas gets relative to the price of a
loaf of bread - that's what a market system is all about - if they don't
like it, the Ethiopians can open a chain of stores serving overpriced coffee
and sugar flavored hot milk of their own. If Starbucks caved and the
Ethiopian government achieved all of their goals, how much would the coffee
farmers (as opposed to the ministers who would pocket the license fees) get
out of that dollar then? 11 cents? I doubt it would be that much.
<admin@ng2000.com > wrote in message
news:1164867074.426687.277610@14g2000cws.googlegroups.com...
> http://www.ng2000.com/news.php?tp=coffee
>
> Oxfam has pressed US coffee giant Starbucks to let Ethiopia trademark
> three coffee beans and end a dispute in which the company has been
> accused of heavy-handed tactics.
>
|
|
