WASHINGTON, DC - April, 17, 2007 - Light Years IP is providing real-time coverage as they lead a momentous training on Intellectual Property management, bringing together fine coffee stakeholders from across Ethiopia. At blog.lightyearsip.net, Light Years IP is posting updates and offering greater background on this poverty-alleviating Initiative which has received wide attention in the international press.

Light Years IP aims to bring readers into Ethiopia's preparations to launch and step up the Ethiopian Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative. The blogs will provide some substantive commentary on the underlying issues and personal perspectives from the view point of Light Years staff and Ethiopian stakeholders. The blog will try to capture Ethiopian hopes for the Initiative and their international coffee partnership as they consider the impact and potential of IP to improve prospects of all in the coffee trade, from bean to cup.

"This four-day training course is without precedent. Ethiopian coffee stakeholders are quite simply the first ever to come together and reflect on the underlying issues of economic justice, commercial opportunity and how to raise farmers' livelihoods behind Intellectual Property. The goal is empowerment, no less!"

Coffee companies, journalists, activists, and socially minded should stay tuned, as the first training to empower a developing country to manage Intellectual Property kicks off. And take a look at the new Ethiopian Coffee Network website, www.ethiopiancoffeenetwork.com!

About the Ethiopian Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative

The Initiative is led by the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Office in conjunction with the Ethiopia Coffee Stakeholder Committee which includes private and cooperative exporters and other entities supporting the coffee sector.

Light Years IP is a Washington DC based NGO working as adviser to Ethiopia on this Coffee Trademarking and Licensing Initiative. The NGO supports developing countries in managing Intellectual Property rights and utilizing IP rights to alleviate poverty. www.lightsyearsip.net

Light Years IP

Light Years IP

Light Years IP (LYIP) is a non-profit organization dedicated to alleviating poverty by assisting developing country producers gain ownership of their Intellectual Property (IP) and to use the IP to increase their export income and improve the security of that income. LYIP is pioneering a Poverty Alleviating IP Solutions (PAIPS) approach to help developing world producers identify and own their IP. We believe IP offers a business strategy that can help developing countries increase income, improve the security of their income, and alleviate poverty. We assist producers, exporters, and governments in the developing world to analyze their export potential with respect to identifying the value of intangibles and then using IP tools (i.e. patents, trademarks, licenses) to secure more sustained and higher export income. The ownership of IP is secured in market countries through the existing IP legal frameworks of the developed world.

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