-The Hindu Business Line Activists say the fight to establish farmers’ right to seeds will continue Ahmedabad: The battle of a multinational-versus-farmers over potato seeds came to an end on Friday, with PepsiCo India Holdings Pvt Ltd withdrawing cases against nine farmers filed in two Gujarat courts. On Friday, PepsiCo sought an early hearing in the cases of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) infringement and applied to withdraw the law suits. It had filed...
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A wake-up call on proprietary seeds -Mrinalini Kochupillai & Gregory Radick
-The Hindu How India can shift its agriculture from a high-yield ideal to a high-value one When the news broke that PepsiCo was suing small farmers in India for growing a potato variety that is used in its Lay’s chips, popular sympathies immediately went, of course, to the farmers. National and international pressure swiftly mounted, and in short order a humbled PepsiCo backtracked, announcing its withdrawal of the lawsuit. There was global...
More »Points of law in the PepsiCo-potato case -Biswajit Dhar
-The Hindu Business Line India’s Protection of Plant Varieties Act spells out rights of farmers vis-a-vis breeders, which resulted in a pushback for PepsiCo The Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act (PPVFRA), which introduced intellectual property protection in Indian agriculture, faced its biggest test in its implementation phase of nearly a decade and a half, when PepsiCo India initiated legal proceedings against four farmers in Gujarat for “illegally” growing...
More »PepsiCo's attempt to sue farmers highlights the lacunae in IPR laws -Rajshree Chandra
-The Indian Express Who is the rightful owner of the potato variety, FL 2027? Is it the farmer who bought, planted, harvested the potatoes from his own farm, or is it the innovator who cross-bred and modified the potato to have a low moisture content for crispier chips? There could not have been a better heading for the IE editorial (April 30) on PepsiCo’s infringement suit against the farmers who have...
More »India trashes US report, calls it attack on cheap generic drugs -Sushmi Dey
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India has outrightly rejected allegations in a US report about the country being a chief source of counterfeit medicines to the world and said it is an attack on low cost generic drugs — crucial to make healthcare affordable. The ‘Special 301 Report’ by United States Trade Representative (USTR) slammed India and China as leading sources of counterfeit medicines distributed globally with 20% of all pharmaceutical...
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