Protecting our products' origin

Some of the planet’s finest coffee varieties originate from Ethiopia. Speciality coffee commands much higher prices on world markets than coffee traded over commodity exchanges.

Some years ago, the Ethiopian coffee growers launched the Ethiopian Fine Coffee Initiative, securing exclusive brand rights over three Ethiopian coffee types, namely Sidamo, Harrar and Yirgacheffe. The Ethiopian coffee growers sought exclusive brand rights over those names through trademark registration and, subsequently, went into licensing agreements with selected coffee distributors, thus ensuring that a much higher portion of the retail price will flow back to the coffee growers and their families.

The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations dedicated to developing a balanced and accessible international intellectual property system. It provides technical assistance to its member states, helping them to enact appropriate and suitable intellectual property laws and to establish and improve the administrative infrastructure for their application.