The Delhi High Court rejected PepsiCo Inc’s appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for the New York-based company’s popular Lay’s potato chips.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Authority in 2021 revoked intellectual protection granted to PepsiCo’s FC5 potato variety, saying that India’s rules do not allow a patent on seed varieties.
The authority had to remove PepsiCo’s patent cover after Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers’ rights activist, argued that the company cannot claim a patent over a seed variety.
On 5th July, Navin Chawla, a Delhi High Court judge dismissed PepsiCo’s appeal against the authority’s decision.
PepsiCo, the U.S. snacks and drinks maker, which set up its first potato chip plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 seed variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price. PepsiCo has maintained that it exclusively developed the FC5 variety and registered the trait in 2016.
In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Indian farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, accusing them of infringing its patent. The company sought more than 10 million rupees ($121,050) each for alleged patent infringement. But within months, PepsiCo withdrew lawsuits against farmers.
In its order, the Delhi High Court did not uphold accusations of any public interest violation by PepsiCo. As per reports, PepsiCo is the second large U.S. company to face patent infringement issues in India.