NSAI hails the Hon’ble Delhi High Court’s landmark judgment which brings clarity on the scope
of patent and PPVFR Act with reference to transgenic traits and varieties. Indian IPR
legislations including the Patents Act and PPVFR Act are TRIPS compliant. No country
complained about Indian IPR laws not meeting the TRIPS requirement in the WTO Forum. This
proves that the Indian IPR laws are well written and accepted by the world. The law of the land
has to be respected and everyone is supposed to be compliant.
The Hon’ble Delhi High Court judgment is only an interpretation of the law of the land.
Monsanto has been making false claims under Patents Act on seeds and plant varieties to
charge high trait value from the farmers. This ruling has made it clear that Monsanto enjoys IPR
only under PPVFR Act and they can make claim for benefit share under this Act before the
statutory PPVFR Authority. They would have got a trait value fixed by the statutory PPVFR
authority under the due process of law in consultation with all the stakeholders, instead of
deciding it at exorbitant levels, claiming non-existent patent rights, on their own for excessive
profits. The misrepresentations of Monsanto have finally been confirmed by the Hon’ble High
Court. From the HC order, it is clear that even after knowing that they have no claims on seeds
and plants which was disallowed by the patent office, Monsanto continued to misrepresent only
for collecting high trait value from farmers.
Innovations are encouraged under PPVFR Act to make available superior varieties to the
farmers. The GM trait developers can represent for appropriate trait value fixation giving
justification on the agronomic value conferred by the GM traits and definitely can secure
appropriate and reasonable returns on their investments. In any case they have huge lobbying
agencies to influence the policy making if there is a need for getting more clarity on the process
of fixing the trait value. Even without testing the operations of a statutory authority, statements
that innovations will not get encouraged is mischievous. The Court verdict needs to be hailed by
all Indians as it balances the interest of every stakeholder and does not do any injustice to
anybody.
First published on: 13 Apr 2018, 00:00 IST
