LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET?A coffee company has withdrawn its intellectual property rights application using ?Ibaloi? as a brand name for its products after Cordillera coffee growers contested the bid.

?I would like to officially inform you that Rocky Mountain Café Inc. has withdrawn its application with the Intellectual Property Office to secure the ?Ibaloi Coffee? trademark as a gesture of respect to Ibaloi people who have been offended by this move,? Pierre Yves Cote, president of the Rocky Mountain Café (RMC), said in a Nov. 16 letter to Gerry Lab-oyan, chair of the Cordillera Regional Arabica Coffee Council (CRACC).

The CRACC is a government-recognized policymaking body mandated to help develop the Cordillera?s coffee industry.

Lab-oyan, a Kankanaey-Ibaloi, welcomed the company?s withdrawal of its trademark bid.

?We in Benguet are happy over this development, but this is a lesson for us ... to be ever vigilant in asserting our rights as indigenous peoples and asserting our collective right to mutually beneficial business partnerships with local or foreign investors,? he told the Inquirer.

The CRACC submitted a resolution of protest to the IPO Cordillera on Oct. 30 contesting RMC?s trademark application.

?Ibaloi is a tribe, so registering it as a product name means commodifying the tribe, something which should be beyond the commerce of man,? the CRACC said.

Cote said RMC is ?not a foreign multinational but a Philippine corporation registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and involved in the production and distribution of coffee.?

But http://www.franphil.
com, a website on franchise information in the Philippines, described RMC as ?a Canadian coffee company that offers coffee services all over the world.?

It lists its business address in British Columbia, Canada, but it has various subsidiaries and franchises in other countries, including the Philippines.

In his letter to Lab-oyan, Cote said his company?s motivation in applying for the ?Ibaloi Coffee? trademark was ?beyond ... profiteering allegations.?

?The Ibaloi trademark is primarily to associate the RMC name to the coffee produced by Ibaloi farmers,? he said.