Inttellectual property protection, American style (#349, Topic B)

USA talks big about intellectual-property protection. So, it is really an eye-opener to read a front-page story in today's Wall Street Journal captioned as "Ethiopia Battles Starbucks Over Rights to Coffee Names." It seems that the world's best coffee is produced in the Sidamo region of Ethiopia; its beans give the hint of "black cherry, chocolate and dark rum" wrapped together. The international chain labels it "Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo," (Shirkina, a word supplied by local farmers = partnership), and sells it for $13 per half-pound, back in 2004. How much were these farmers paid? "About 75 cents a pound" -- or 37.5 cents per half-pound. When the director-general of Ethiopia's intellectual-property office raised the issue of "unfair price gap," and wanted to trademark the names, the chain tried to sweet-talk him from doing so. Doing so "would place too much responsibility on the company to defend Ethiopia's trademark;" "it is not something you would do as a business." Intellectual-property protection, it seems, is a one-way street. According to WSJ, Ethiopia pioneered the coffee trade "more than 500 years ago." According to the World Bank, Ethiopia's total export in fiscal year 2006 was about $1 billion, of which coffee accounted for $354 million. In March 2005, the Ethiopia government applied for three trademarks for her three coffee-growing regions -- but "the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office blocked Ethiopia's application for Sidamo because Starbucks had already applied to trademark the name 'Shirkina Sun-Dried Sidamo." This is nothing new. Western phamaceutical companies have made a practice of trademarking Chinese herbal-medicine ingredients -- millennia old -- and then turning around to accuse Chinese merchants of intellectual-property violation for featuring these same herbal-medicine ingredients in their products. Well, the WSJ story continued by saying that the National Coffee Association, a U.S. trade group, sent a letter to the trademark office "urging it to deny Ethiopia trademarks for Sidamo and Harar [another coffee-growing region]." On what ground? "They are generic names." Specific geographic names as generic names? Talk to any farmer in Champagne -- similar products outside of this region may only use phrases such as "sparkling wine." Oh, excuse me; Champagne is an exception, because it is done by a developed country. According to the National Coffee Association, anothe reason to deny Ethiopia's application is "Ethiopia does not have the capacity to manage the trademarks." Bingo. If this is not enough, the WSJ further stated that "the U.S. trademark office provisionally refused Ethiopia's request for Sidamo and Harar." According to WSJ, "Ethiopia is now appealing the decision." In the meantime, Oxfam, a nonprofit relief and development group, (if my memory serves, it was initiated by quite a few World Bank staffers) began publicizing it by urging customers to complain about the company's stance. So much for intellectual-property protection in a developed country.

Voting in a democracy (#348, Topic P)

Our retirement community holds, on the first Sunday evening of each month, a "fireside forum." Tonight's forum was billed as "Our place in the world of politics." I thought our refers to USA. I was wrong; it refers only to a school at the state university. Luckily, the talk was short, lasting about 15 minutes. Then it was the Q&A period. The first question was raised by a fellow resident whom I know. She asked: "Except for [our retirement community], which has high voter participation, why citizens do not care to vote?" (One research component of this school deals with voting; that unit provided voting machines for our retirement community.) That was indeed an interesting question. But the answer was even more interesting. Candidly, the speaker said: "Many people feel that they have nothing at stake, so they simply do not vote." After a moment, he added: "Many countries declare the election day a national holiday. But this is not so in USA. Perhaps you could write to your senators and propose making the election day a national holiday." To my way of thinking, voting is another example of "Do what I say, don't do what I do." USA travles around the world promoting democracy, which, according to the president, equals voting. But the percentage of eligible voters in USA who voted in the past several presidential elections -- if my memory serves -- never exceeded 60%. When the speaker was answering this question, I thought to myself. What is needed, for USA, is not promoting democracy around the world, but showing the world that citizens of USA respect democracy and cast vote. Show the world a passing grade in voter participation -- say, 70% -- and then promote democracy around the world. Before this threshold is reached, look inward and educate the citizenry instead.