Pepsico lays down arms against Indian farmers

Intellectual Property Rights

Pepsico concedes defeat against the Indian farmers they had sued of Intellectual Property Rights infringement of illegally growing its registered potatoes. The officials of Pesico had initially sought damages of Rs 1.05 crore each from the farmers. Over 190 activists supported the Indian farmers and urged the union government to ask Pepsico India to draw out its “false” cases due to which the company has finally agreed to withdraw its cases against the farmers after discussions with the Indian government. Initially, Pepsico wanted to settle with the farmers by asking them either to sell their crops to Pepsi or stop growing them. But then, there was a huge social media criticism and repeated attacks by the political parties that led to pressure from its New York and Dubai offices to resolve the issue at the earliest. A Pepsico India spokesperson added in an emailed statement, “We are relying on the said discussions to find a long-term and amicable resolution of all issues around seed protection.”

Activists are now soliciting the Indian government to give more encouragement to the farmers that they can grow crops according to their needs and wishes. The Alliance for Sustainable and Holistic Agriculture (ASHA) also stated, “The government should put into clear mechanisms to avoid repetition of this episode in future and Pepsico should have apologized for the intimidation and harassment of farmers in this case.” Moreover, the Indian political parties like Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Congress also supported the farmers by tweeting against the company’s brazenly wrong decision to sue the farmers. Pepsico gave a statement saying that it had spent many years working with thousands of Indian farmers and was eventually impelled by the Indian government to withdraw its case against the farmers unregistered to grow its potato variety.More Visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com/

 

 

 

Australia’s Bega Cheese wins peanut butter packaging dispute against Kraft

Intellectual Property Rights

Australian company Bega Cheese finally ends a long-running legal battle with American food giant Kraft by owning the exclusive rights to the well-known peanut butter jar with a yellow lid. Initially, Kraft took the Australian company to the Federal Court alleging Bega engaged in misleading or deceptive conduct over the marketing of its peanut butter.

In 2013, the US food giant’s Australian subsidiary Krafts Food Limited was renamed Mondelez Australia. Mondelez Australia traded the Kraft brand and peanut butter packaging under a license agreement and after some time, in 2017, sold the peanut butter business to Bega Cheese which began selling it in a yellow-labeled jar with a lid and a red or blue peanut butter logo. But Kraft claimed Mondelez couldn’t sell the rights to use Kraft’s peanut butter packaging as their Intellectual Property Rights were obnoxiously violated by a company who merely had a license to use it. On Wednesday, the Federal court Justice David O’ Callaghan delivered his judgment by declaring that the rights transferred to Bega were part of the sales agreement between it and Mondelez. As a result, the Australian company is now “exclusively entitled” to use the current packaging of yellow lid, and red and blue peanut label. A further hearing will be held to decide orders and discussions about damages. More Visit: http://trademarkmaldives.com/

USTR retains India on the Priority Watch List

 

The United States Trade Representative (USTR), yearly conducts the Special 301 Report, a result of an annual review of the state of IP protection and enforcement in US trading partners around the world. This list includes the Priority watch list countries identified as having several serious Intellectual Property Rights inadequacies that need an increased USTR supervision. Due to India’s insufficient measurable improvements on the Intellectual Property Rights framework, it once again became a victim of the Priority Watch list for the 27th year in a row. Along with India, USTR has identified 11 countries in its Priority Watch List including China, Indonesia, Russia, etc. In the recent Special 301 Report issued by the USTR, the US termed India as “one of the world’s most challenging major economies” corresponding to the management, protection and enforcement of intellectual property.

Although India has taken several steps in the past to discuss the problems of enforcement of the IP rights, many of the actions have not yet converted into tangible advantages for the creators, and, it is a matter of fact that, yes, India has definitely dismissed the observations in the Special 301 report over the years admitting it as a unilateral report of the US since India was completely amenable with multi lateral IP directives.

In this report, the US accused India of having major long-hauling IP decisions making it difficult for the applicants to receive and perpetuate patents in their respective businesses, specifically for pharmaceuticals. The report even claimed that both India and China were the leading sources of the spurious medicines distributed globally. Although the exact figures remain undisclosed, studies suggest that up to 20% of the drugs sold in the Indian markets are forged and could pose a serious threat to life. The USTR also declared that India maintained exceptionally high custom duties towards IP intensive products such as pharmaceuticals, medical devices, solar energy equipment, to name a few, in spite of India’s repeated premises of restraining IP laws to increase the access to the growing trend in technologies.

At the same time, the report also noted the progress made by India in the last one year by appreciating India’s Cell for Intellectual Property Rights Promotion and Management (CIPAM) efforts to unravel processes, encourage commercialization, and increase IP awareness.

In a nutshell, the USTR wants the governments of the countries included in the Priority Watch list to support the IP systems by making sure to use obligatory licenses only when the circumstances are extremely unlikely and after putting in all the efforts required to procure authorization from the patent owner using rational terms and conditions. The US will continue to look at developments as required with the trading partners including India. For more visit: https://www.trademarkmaldives.com

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