Starbucks moves closer to deal on Ethiopian branding rights

Starbucks (NYSE: SBUX) may get its wish to own the rights to Ethiopia's regional coffee names. Starbucks had spent several months attempting to discourage the Ethiopian government from seeking trademark protection for its coffee names, but will now try to license the names from the country.

Starbucks' efforts to keep the names unprotected resulted in a predictable backlash: National media coverage and numerous organizations lashing out at Starbucks for its self-serving attitude about trademarks. Now Starbucks is doing the right thing, forking over money for the rights to distribute and market products under those names.

Starbucks has to be careful about its image. Its size and success comes with the inevitable rise in anti-Starbucks sentiment, as evidenced by sites like Ihatestarbucks.com. The company has done extremely well to date maintaining the feel of its stores, and is consistently rated one of the best companies to work for, providing benefits to part-time employees.

But blunders like the Ethiopian coffee scandal will only hurt it. The bad press Starbucks drew was probably not worth the few dollars it was trying to save.