Another victory for farmers, patent rights to PepsiCo for PC5 potato revoked

In a major victory for farmers in India, the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Authority has revoked a patent for a potato variety grown exclusively for PepsiCo Inc’s potato chips sol under the Lays brand.

PepsiCo set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, with the supply of the FC5 potato seed to a group of farmers, who were obliged to sell the entire produce to the company, at a price fixed by PepsiCo. The FC5 variety of potato has a lower moisture content, which helps in making potato chips.

PepsiCo had sued farmers of Gujarat for cultivating the FC5 variety of potato, which the company claimed it had developed the FC5 variety of potato and had registered the trait in 2016. However, the company withdrew the lawsuits the same year and the US based company announced that it wanted to settle the issue amicably.

Farmers’ rights activist, Kavitha Kuruganti, later petitioned the PPVFR Authority for revocation of intellectual protection granted to PepsiCo’s FC5 variety, arguing that India’s rules do not allow a patent over a seed variety. Th PPVFR Authority accepted Kuruganti’s contention and the patent was revoked by the Authority on Friday.