The Hindu : National : Monsanto challenges MRTPC order

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

National

National

Monsanto challenges MRTPC order

Legal Correspondent

The order restrained it from charging Rs. 900 for a packet of 450 gm of Bt cottonseed

New Delhi: Mahyco Monsanto Biotech-India Ltd. has moved the Supreme Court against a temporary order passed by the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) restraining it from charging Rs. 900 for a packet of 450 gm of Bt cottonseed.

Monsanto, a U.S.-based company formed a joint venture with Mahyco, a seed company trading in India, and formed the Mahyco Monsanto Biotech-India Ltd. and this company had entered into agreements with several companies for selling Bt cotton.

Acting on an application filed by the Andhra Pradesh Government, the Commission, in its May 11 order, had directed the company not to charge trait value of Rs. 900 per packet of 450 gm of Bt cottonseeds from farmers in India during the pendency of the proceedings.

Questions jurisdiction

Assailing this order, Mahyco, in its appeal, said the Commission had no jurisdiction to adjudicate on the issue because "licensing of technology does not fall under the classification of goods or services." It said that the agreement between the appellant and sub licensees related to technology and know-how transfer and and there was no trade in goods.

The company pointed out that it was not dealing with any goods. The trait value/royalty was being charged not for sale of any goods but on account of transfer of know-how and technology to the sub licensees, which they further incorporated into their own seeds.

The term royalty could not be applied since there was no patent of the technology of the appellant in India.

It maintained that there was no provision in law that the inventor of a new and useful product could not allow a person to use his product on payment of a fee for such use, regardless of the fact whether the inventor held a patent under the Indian law or not.

Further there was no rule or guideline to determine the prices that a technology provider could charge from its sub licensees.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail