An Indian courtroom rejected PepsiCo Inc’s appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato selection grown completely for Lay’s potato chips.
| Photo Credit: Bloomberg
An Indian courtroom rejected PepsiCo Inc’s appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato selection grown completely for the New York-based firm’s in style Lay’s potato chips.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Authority in 2021 revoked mental safety granted to PepsiCo’s FC5 potato selection, saying that India’s guidelines don’t enable a patent on seed varieties.
The authority eliminated PepsiCo’s patent cowl after Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers’ rights activist, argued that the corporate can’t declare a patent over a seed selection.
PepsiCo petitioned the Delhi High Court against the revocation of the patent cowl.
In its order dated July 5, Delhi High Court decide Navin Chawla dismissed PepsiCo’s appeal against the authority’s resolution.
“We are aware of the order … and are in the process of reviewing the same,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson mentioned in a press release.
The U.S. snacks and drinks maker, which arrange its first potato chip plant in India in 1989, provides the FC5 seed selection to a bunch of farmers who in flip promote their produce to the corporate at a set value.
PepsiCo has maintained that it completely developed the FC5 selection and registered the trait in 2016. The FC5 selection has a decrease moisture content material required to make snacks reminiscent of potato chips.
In a press release, Kuruganti mentioned, “It is good that the judgement of Justice Navin Chawla upheld the revocation order . . .”
In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Indian farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato selection, accusing growers of infringing its patent. The firm additionally sought greater than 10 million rupees ($121,050) every for alleged patent infringement.
Within months, PepsiCo withdrew lawsuits against farmers.
In its order, the Delhi High Court didn’t uphold accusations of any public curiosity violation by PepsiCo.
PepsiCo is the second massive U.S. firm to face patent infringement points in India.
After a long-standing mental property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some companies in India.
