PepsiCo’s potato patent revoked by Indian authorities.
- ByStartupStory | December 4, 2021
“This judgement is a historic victory for the farmers of India. It should also prevent any other seed or food corporation from transgressing legally granted farmers’s seed freedoms in India.” convenor of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture, Kavitha Kuruganti said in a statement. She filed to revoke PepsiCo’s registration in 2019 after a widespread outrage grew among farmers as a result of PepsiCo suing 9 Gujarati farmers for allegedly infringing patent rights by growing its registered potato variety.
Introduced in India in 2009, the FL-2027 potato variety was grown by about 12000 farmers with whom the company had an exclusive contract to sell seeds and buy back their produce. The company registered the variety under the PPV&FR Act, 2001 in 2016. The company alleged that certain farmers who were not part of the programme were growing the selling the particular variety and sued nine farmers in infringement cases including a lawsuit of Rs 4.2 crores against four farmers.
This incident caused widespread outrage leading to the company withdrawing all cases in May,2019. Ms. Kuruganti filed her motion to revoke PepsiCo’s registration in June 2019. The PPV&FRA questioned the documentation of PepsiCo’s registration. The Authority accepted Ms Kuruganti’s contention and stated that the patent violates public interest, added the order from PPV&FRA chairperson K.V. Prabh.
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