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.

　　零食兼饮料生产商百事公司因四位印度农民种植了一个土豆品种而起诉了他们，该公司声称他们侵犯了其专利权，百事公司及该土豆品种的种植者说道。

　　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.

　　百事公司起诉了种植FC5土豆品种的农民，因为该土豆品种是专供其备受欢迎的乐事薯片的。FC5土豆品种的水分含量较低，满足生产薯片等零食的需求。

　　The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees ($142,840) each for alleged patent infringement.

　　该公司请求对侵犯其专利权的每个人罚款1000万卢比(14.284万美元)。

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

　　这些农民在古吉拉特邦西部种植土豆，而且印度多数食用蔬菜主要产于该地区。

　　“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.

　　“我们种了很长时间土豆了，从未遇到过这种问题，而且我们主要用收获的土豆留出的种子来种植下一年的作物，”毕品·巴特尔说道，他是被百事公司起诉的四位农民之一。

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

　　巴特尔没有说明他是如何获得百事公司的这个土豆品种的。

　　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.

　　星期五古吉拉特邦商业中心艾哈迈达巴德当地的法院同意于6月12日审理这一案件，这几位农民的律师安纳德·雅格尼克说道。

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

　　“在这一事件中，对于那些非法种植我们注册过的土豆品种的人，我们对其进行了司法追索，”百事公司在印度的发言人说道。

　　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.

　　百事公司于1989年开设了其在印度的第一家薯片厂，并向一群农民提供了其FC5土豆品种，而这些农民则以固定的价格把他们种植的土豆卖给百事公司。

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

　　百事公司表示，这四位农民可以加入专门为乐事薯片种植FC5土豆品种的种植者团队。