The overlap between the Patents Acts and the plant variety protection & Farmer's Rights Act in India: A seed of doubt

摘要

Like many countries, India has opted to protect new plant varieties through a sui generis legislation aimed at protecting new plant varieties. Given the increased use of biotechnology to create genetically modified plants and the fact that these inventions can be protected under patent law, there is the question of overlaps of both legal regimes. These issues of overlap are not new since jurisdictions like the EU have previously witnessed significant litigation on this issue and subsequently incorporated certain safeguards in the EU Biotech Directive to reduce the confusion arising from overlaps between its patent law and its law on plant variety protection. This article will analyse the issues raised in India and propose a framework to resolve the overlaps.