PepsiCo, the US-based food and beverages multinational, has sued nine farmers of Gujarat, some of them for Rs 1 crore each, for allegedly violating its intellectual property rights (IPR) in a registered potato variety. A court has given an injunction after finding that the samples were indeed PepsiCo’s variety, but the company might find it difficult to prove that the farmers obtained the seed illegally.

India has two laws for protecting agricultural IPRs. Genetically-modified (GM) traits like bollworm resistance and herbicide tolerance in cotton, for instance, being artificial nucleic acid sequences, are protected by the Indian Patent Act. India also has a unique law, enacted in 2001, which protects the rights of farmers and communities in plant varieties they have conserved over time.

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