Delhi High Court recently upheld the decision made by made by Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA) regarding the revocation of PepsiCo India’s intellectual property protection for a potato variety (FL 2027).
PPVFRA
- The PPVFRA is an organization responsible for safeguarding the rights of plant breeders and farmers in India.
- It is an authority established under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights (PPVFR) Act, 2001.
- The PPVFRA plays a crucial role in granting intellectual property protection to plant varieties and ensuring the rights of breeders and farmers are upheld.
- It reviews applications for plant variety registration, conducts examinations, and grants certificates of registration to eligible applicants.
- The authority also has the power to revoke or cancel the registration of plant varieties if deemed necessary.
FL 2027 Variety
- FL 2027 is a potato variety developed by Robert W Hoopes at Frito-Lay Agricultural Research. It is specifically bred for chip production by PepsiCo’s Lay’s brand.
- FL 2027 is an ideal potato variety for chip manufacturing due to its high dry matter, low sugar content, and lower moisture content.
- These qualities minimize dehydration and energy costs during processing while reducing the risk of blackening when fried.
Case
- PepsiCo India Holdings was granted a certificate of registration for FL 2027 as an “extant variety” on February 1, 2016 by PPVFRA.
- It implied that during the validity period, nobody else could commercially produce, sell, market, distribute, import or export it without the breeder’s authorization.
- This period was 6 years from the date of registration and extendable up to 15 years.
- However, PepsiCo in its 2012 application had sought the registration of FL 2027 as a “new variety” which due to failing to meet certain criteria was rejected.
Criteria for a “new variety” of Plant
- A “new variety” has to conform to the criterion of novelty – the propagated or harvested material from it should not have been sold in India earlier than one year before the date of filing the application for registration.
- FL 2027 variety could satisfy only the criteria of distinctiveness, uniformity and stability, but not novelty.
Reasons for the Registration Revocation
- PepsiCo had also provided an incorrect first date of commercialization of the variety (17 Dec 2009), when it was already commercialized in 2002 in Chile.
- Hence, PPVFRA revoked the protection in December 2021 and rejected PepsiCo’s application for renewal in February 2022. It also made it clear that India’s rules do not allow a patent on seed varieties.
- PepsiCo challenged PPVFRA’s decision in the Delhi HC.