Robert Winter, a senior partner at Arnold & Porter, probably never thought he’d be pushing his client’s point of view on YouTube when he agreed to help the government of Ethiopia protect the intellectual property associated with the names of three of its most famous coffee-growing regions.
But last week he defended the country’s initiative to trademark and license the coffee names in a video posted on the site. It was a response to a widely viewed video posted in December by Dub Hay, Starbucks Coffee Co. senior vice president, claiming the trademark and licensing scheme was illegal.
