In the coffee industry, intellectual property rights tend to extend only to branding. There are no rights extended to specific roasts, beans, or other inputs. Brand name protections include trademarks, slogans and other similar intellectual property. Common coffee terminology cannot be trademarked -- so for example Starbucks can trademark Frappuccino because that is not a generic term, but it cannot trademark cappuccino, because that is a generic term. In general, there are few IP disputes in the industry, though it is conceivable that branding disputes might emerge. Key technological inputs like espresso machines and coffee roasters can be patented, and usually are, allowing companies that build those machines to profit from their design efforts.

Coffee is traded on global commodities markets, and these set the base price for a standard bean. Beans are traded in green form, and are then roasted by the individual companies in the market....

There are no import or export restrictions on coffee, owning to the lack of domestic production that would require or seek government protection. Imports are subject to inspection by the FDA, but routine coffee imports are unlikely to have problems. In some cases, roasters will seek out specific beans from individual farms ("single origin") or strains of the plant. These are likely to be priced at a premium to the global commodity price, both at the wholesale and retail levels.
The tax laws in the coffee industry are typical for any food service industry. There are no federal taxes save the corporate income tax. State, county or civic tax can be levied both at the time of purchase or at the income tax level in some cases. There is no excise tax on coffee production. Companies in the coffee industry pay normal income taxes like any other business. There are also taxes that may be levied during the wholesale process, depending on the jurisdiction.