AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI: PepsiCo Inc has sued 4 Indian farmers for cultivating a potato selection that the snack foods and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers stated on Friday.
Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato selection, solely grown for its common Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 selection has a lower moisture content required to make snacks comparable to potato chips.
PepsiCo is looking for more than Rs 1,000 crore ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.
The farmers develop potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading manufacturer of India’s maximum ate up vegetable.
“We had been rising potatoes for a very long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve most commonly been the use of the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the following year’s crop,” stated Bipin Patel, one of the most 4 farmers sued by means of Pepsi.
Patel did not say how he got here by means of the PepsiCo selection.
A court in Ahmedabad, the industry hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, stated Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.
“In this instance, we took judicial recourse towards people who had been illegally dealing in our registered selection,” a PepsiCo India spokesman stated. “This used to be accomplished to protect our rights and safeguard the larger passion of farmers that are engaged with us and who're the use of and making the most of seeds of our registered selection,” he added.
PepsiCo, which arrange its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, provides the FC5 potato selection to a group of farmers who in flip promote their produce to the company at a fixed price.
The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has requested the Indian executive to protect the farmers.
The farmers’ discussion board has often known as for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s different products.
The ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare did not straight away reply to an e-mail looking for comment.
PepsiCo is the second one main US corporate in India to stand problems over patent infringement.
Stung by means of a long-standing intellectual assets dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by means of German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some companies in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017.
Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato selection, solely grown for its common Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 selection has a lower moisture content required to make snacks comparable to potato chips.
PepsiCo is looking for more than Rs 1,000 crore ($142,840.82) each for alleged patent infringement.
The farmers develop potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading manufacturer of India’s maximum ate up vegetable.
“We had been rising potatoes for a very long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve most commonly been the use of the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the following year’s crop,” stated Bipin Patel, one of the most 4 farmers sued by means of Pepsi.
Patel did not say how he got here by means of the PepsiCo selection.
A court in Ahmedabad, the industry hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, stated Anand Yagnik, the lawyer for the farmers.
“In this instance, we took judicial recourse towards people who had been illegally dealing in our registered selection,” a PepsiCo India spokesman stated. “This used to be accomplished to protect our rights and safeguard the larger passion of farmers that are engaged with us and who're the use of and making the most of seeds of our registered selection,” he added.
PepsiCo, which arrange its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, provides the FC5 potato selection to a group of farmers who in flip promote their produce to the company at a fixed price.
The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has requested the Indian executive to protect the farmers.
The farmers’ discussion board has often known as for a boycott of PepsiCo’s Lay’s chips and the company’s different products.
The ministry of agriculture & farmers’ welfare did not straight away reply to an e-mail looking for comment.
PepsiCo is the second one main US corporate in India to stand problems over patent infringement.
Stung by means of a long-standing intellectual assets dispute, seed maker Monsanto, which is now owned by means of German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some companies in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017.
Pepsico sues Indian farmers over potatoes
![Pepsico sues Indian farmers over potatoes]()
Reviewed by Kailash
on
April 26, 2019
Rating:
