-IndiaSpend.com/ Scroll.in PepsiCo has appealed in the Delhi High Court against the revocation of its registration of a potato variety. An ongoing court case between multinational food and beverage company PepsiCo India and the petitioner, farmers’ rights activist Kavitha Kuruganti, has highlighted the tensions between plant-breeding corporations which want a stricter intellectual property rights regime and farmers’ rights in developing countries. International intellectual property rights conventions seek to give plant variety breeders the...

-The Hindu PepsiCo cited the FAQ section to justify cases filed by it. A document which food and beverages giant PepsiCo India cited to support its charges against Gujarat potato farmers earlier this year is being revised by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority (PPV&FRA), following complaints from major farmers groups. The Frequently Asked Questions or FAQ document had claimed that “only small and marginal farmers involved in subsistence farming”...

-The Hindu Following application to revoke registration of potato variety used for Lays chips Food and beverage giant PepsiCo India has been slapped with a notice from a central agency under the Agriculture Ministry regarding an application to revoke the registration of its potato variety used to make its trademark Lays chips. The application was filed by Kavitha Kuruganti, a convenor of the Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture. The notice, which The...

-The Hindu It had sued them for Rs. 20 lakh PepsiCo has applied to withdraw its cases against two brothers who are major potato farmers and traders in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat. This is the first concrete move taken by the company to back down from its cases against at least nine potato farmers who grew its protected variety used to make Lays chips. PepsiCo’s lawyer filed the application in a Deesa court...

-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...