Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
Addis Ababa - Ethiopia has won trademark rights for its specialty Sidamo coffee in the United States, the country's intellectual property office said on Wednesday.
Africa's largest coffee producer had a protracted tussle with Starbucks last year over the use of the name in the United States.
"Ethiopia was forced to wait for years to secure the certificate... but now the US Patent and Trademark Office has confirmed that Ethiopia is the sole owner of the Sidamo coffee trademark," the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office (EIPO) said in a statement.
Ethiopia has already secured trademark rights for Yirgacheffee coffee in the United States.
Home of coffee
Starbucks and Addis Ababa agreed to end their dispute in November 2007.
Ethiopia has filed an application for trademark rights for its Harar coffee, the statement said.
It said Ethiopia had signed agreements with more than 70 global companies to promote its coffees.
Ethiopia's annual production is estimated at over 330 000 tons. It plans to generate $500m by exporting over 140 000 tons of coffee in 2008.
The African country is recognised as the historic birthplace of coffee and the source of some of the finest coffee in the world.
- Reuters