Archive for ‘sues’

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27/04/2019

PepsiCo sues four Indian farmers for using its patented Lay’s potatoes

AHMEDABAD/NEW DELHI (Reuters) – PepsiCo Inc has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday.

Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, grown exclusively for its popular Lay’s potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.

The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees (£110,669) each for alleged patent infringement.

The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India’s most consumed vegetable.

“We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn’t face this problem ever, as we’ve mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year’s crop,” said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi.

Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety.

A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hear the case on June 12, said Anand Yagnik, the farmers’ lawyer.

“In this instance, we took judicial recourse against people who were illegally dealing in our registered variety,” a PepsiCo India spokesman said.

“This was done to protect our rights and safeguard the larger interest of farmers that are engaged with us and who are using and benefiting from seeds of our registered variety.”

PepsiCo, which set up its first potato chips plant in India in 1989, supplies the FC5 potato variety to a group of farmers who in turn sell their produce to the company at a fixed price.

The company said the four farmers could join the group of growers who exclusively grow the FC5 variety for its Lay’s potato chips.

“PepsiCo India has proposed to amicably settle with the people who were unlawfully using the seeds of its registered variety. PepsiCo has also proposed that they may become part of its collaborative potato farming programme,” the company spokesman said in a statement.

If the farmers do not wish to grow the FC5 potato variety for PepsiCo, they can simply sign an agreement with the company to cultivate other available varieties, he added.

The All India Kisan Sabha, or All India Farmers’ Forum, has asked the Indian government to protect the farmers.

The forum has also called for a boycott of Lay’s chips and PepsiCo’s other products.

The Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

PepsiCo is the second large U.S. company to face patent infringement issues in India.
Stung by a long-standing intellectual property dispute, seed maker Monsanto, now owned by German drugmaker Bayer AG, withdrew from some businesses in India over a cotton-seed dispute with farmers, Reuters reported in 2017. (reut.rs/2ncBknn)
Source: Reuters

Posted in All India Farmers’ Forum, All India Kisan Sabha, Bayer AG, Bipin Patel, cotton-seed dispute, FC5 variety, Gujarat, India alert, Indian farmers, indian government, Lay's potatoes, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare, Monsanto, patented, PepsiCo, sues, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

07/02/2019

India man to sue parents for giving birth to him

Mr Samuel says he remembers first having anti-natalist thoughts when he was five.

“I was a normal kid. One day I was very frustrated and I didn’t want to go to school but my parents kept asking me to go. So I asked them: ‘Why did you have me?’ And my dad had no answer. I think if he’d been able to answer, maybe I wouldn’t have thought this way.”

As the idea grew and took shape in his mind, he decided to tell his parents about it. He says his mum reacted “very well” and dad too “is warming up” to the idea.

Image from Nihilanand Facebook page saying you owe your parents nothingImage copyrightNIHILANAND

“Mum said she wished she had met me before I was born and that if she did, she definitely wouldn’t have had me,” he says laughing and adds that she does see reason in his argument.

“She told me that she was quite young when she had me and that she didn’t know she had another option. But that’s what I’m trying to say – everyone has the option.”

In her statement, his mother also said it was unfair to focus on a “sliver of what he believes in”.

“His belief in anti-natalism, his concern for the burden on Earth’s resources due to needless life, his sensitivity toward the pain experienced unwittingly by children while growing up and so much more has been ruefully forgotten.

“I’m very happy that my son has grown up into a fearless, independent-thinking young man. He is sure to find his path to happiness.”

Mr Samuel says his decision to take his parents to court is only based on his belief that the world would be a much better place without human beings in it.

So six months ago, one day at breakfast, he told his mother that he was planning to sue her. “She said that’s fine, but don’t expect me to go easy on you. I will destroy you in court.” Mr Samuel is now looking for a lawyer to take up his case, but so far he’s not had much success.

“I know it’s going to be thrown out because no judge would hear it. But I do want to file a case because I want to make a point.”

His Facebook posts have also attracted a lot of responses, “some positive, but mostly negative” with some even advising him to “go kill yourself”. He has also had worried mums asking him what would happen if their children see his posts.

“Some argue logically, some are offended and some are offensive. To those abusing me, let them abuse me. But I also hear from many who say they support me but can’t say this publicly for whatever reasons. I ask them to come out and speak up,” he says.

His critics also say that he’s doing this to get some publicity.

“I’m not really doing this for publicity,” he says, “but I do want the idea to go public. This simple idea that it’s okay to not have a child.”

I ask him if he is unhappy being born.

“I wish I was not born. But it’s not that I’m unhappy in my life. My life is good, but I’d rather not be here. You know it’s like there’s a nice room, but I don’t want to be in that room,” he explains.

Source: The BBCPooja Pandey, leader of the Hindu Mahasabha, shooting at an effigy of Gandhi with an air pistol

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Posted in giving birth, India alert, parents, sues, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment »

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