Supreme Court to hear Monsanto plea over GM cotton patents

NEW DELHI: Monsanto’s appeal against the invalidation of its patent on Bt cotton seed variety Bollgard II will be heard by the Supreme Court on May 7 in a case that will have far-reaching impact on India’s intellectual property (IP) regime.

A Delhi High Court bench had said in an April 11 ruling that Monsanto’s patent was not valid under Section 3(j) of the Patent Act, splitting opinion between those who said it would prevent Indian farmers getting the much-needed benefits of agricultural innovation and others who dismissed this concern as overblown. Supreme Court justices Rohinton Nariman and Abhay Manohar Sapre are scheduled to start hearing the appeal on Monday.

A Monsanto spokesperson said it has appealed to the apex court without elaborating. The agri-biotech industry feels the ruling will impact future investment in the sector. However, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) said it will not have any impact on patents and that innovation and new technology will continue to be safeguarded.

“A number of patents of agriculture biotech inventions in various crops from wheat to rice that have been granted by various patent authorities across the globe stand the risk of being invalidated because of the judgement,” said Ram Kaundinya, former CEO of Advanta Ltd and an agri-biotech expert.

He added that many of these patents were not particular to a crop but to a trait such as increasing yield and stress tolerance, which could be used in different crops. Kaundinya also said that the patents had not been commercialised and were at various stages of regulatory clearance.

During the early stages of research and development, a technology is patented and is then used in a plant or crop, which is called an ‘event’, said Kaundinya. After that it goes for regulatory approval, including field trials, which could take sixeight years, and subsequently it can be commercialised, he said.