Apex Indian court restores Monsanto's Bt cotton patent

18 Jan '19

2 min read

Courtesy: Monsanto

India’s Supreme Court recently restored Monsanto’s Bt cotton patent in the country till its validity is decided by the Delhi High Court, which rendered it non-enforceable in May. It had concurred with the government’s contention that the patented gene inserted into a plant became a plant itself and ceased to be a patentable ‘product’ under the Patents Act.

Monsanto is now owned by German multinational Bayer AG. This implies the biotech company can ask its local sub-licencees for royalties under the Patents Act. Experts, however, feel it could still find that tough as domestic firms no longer require annual no-objection certificates from the company to sell seeds bearing the patented technology.

The two-judge Supreme Court bench also said Monsanto could alternatively seek protection of its Bollgard-II technology, which helps cotton plants resist bollworm, under the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Act, 2001.

India’s agriculture ministry issued a seed price control order in December 2015, but despite that, costlier illegal copies of Monsanto’s latest seeds are flooding the market. Such seeds are being sold by traders without even proper labelling, according to Indian media reports.

Detereed by the HC division bench ruling that made it impossible for it to stop sale of seeds bearing its technology by the sub-licencees and the price controls, Monsanto has been going slow on its plans for the India market. It withdrew the herbicide tolerant cotton seeds from the approval process in India in August 2016.

It also reportedly put in abeyance plans to submit newer seeds for approval in India. (DS)

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