When Fabiola Pinyoque read the letter back in 2021, she was livid.

I wanted to kill them, but of course you can't, they're very far away, they're very big

and there's nowhere to find them.

The letter that got Fabiola's little riled up was from the Coca-Cola company.

It was a cease and desist letter.

It said that her company had infringed Coca-Cola's trademark and they had 10 days to pull their

drinks on the market or risk legal action.

The product in question was a beer infused with the Coca leaf.

In Colombia where Fabiola lives, Pola is a common word for beer.

So her Coca-Bier was called, naturally enough, Coca-Cola.

I was very angry because they'd been in the market for a hundred years.

I'm sorry, this has been in my life forever and I'm a descendant of a thousand year tradition

of people using the Coca leaf.

This is a common story.

A corporate giant like Coca-Cola gets into a trademark dispute with a smaller company that's

been using a particular word or it even appropriates a name that's been used by another culture

for a very long time.

What's fascinating about this story is how Fabiola fought back.

This is the indicator from planet money I'm Whelan Wong.

And I'm Darien Woods.

Theran the show, an indigenous woman in Colombia makes a stand against a company that's pretty

much synonymous with transnational capitalism, Coca-Cola.

...