© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A customer picks packets of Lay’s potato chips at a store in Ahmedabad, India, April 26, 2019. REUTERS/Amit Dev/File Photo
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Written by Mayank Bhardwaj and Sumit Khanna
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – An Indian court has rejected PepsiCo (NASDAQ::) Inc’s appeal against an order that revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for New York-based potato chip maker Lay’s.
The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) in 2021 revoked intellectual protection given to PepsiCo’s FC5 potato variety, saying India’s rules did not allow patents on seed varieties.
The authority removed PepsiCo’s patent cap after Farmers’ Rights activist Kavitha Coruganti argued that the company could not claim a patent on a variety of seeds.
PepsiCo has petitioned the Delhi High Court against the cancellation of the patent cap.
In her order dated July 5, Delhi High Court Judge Naveen Chawla dismissed PepsiCo’s appeal against the authority’s decision.
“We are aware of the matter … and are reviewing it,” a PepsiCo India spokesperson said in a statement.
The American snack and beverage manufacturer, which established India’s first potato chips factory in 1989, supplies a group of farmers who sell their products to the company at a fixed price.
PepsiCo confirmed that it had exclusively developed the FC5 variety and registered the attribute in 2016. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required for making snacks such as potato chips.
“It is good that Judge Naveen Chawla’s ruling upheld the annulment order…,” Kuruganti said in a statement.
In 2019, PepsiCo sued some Indian farmers for growing the FC5 potato variety, accusing the farmers of violating its patent. The company also demanded more than 10 million rupees ($121,050) each for alleged patent infringement.
Within months, PepsiCo withdrew the lawsuits against the farmers.
In its order, the Delhi High Court did not uphold the accusations of any breach of public interest by PepsiCo.
PepsiCo is the second major US company facing patent infringement cases in India.
After a long intellectual property dispute, the maker of Seeds Monsanto (NYSE:), now owned by the German pharmaceutical company Bayer AG (ETR:), pulled out of some companies in India.
($1 = 82.61 rupees)