India Out To Reclaim Yoga Power (to prevent patenting in the U.S)

krsna · June 26, 2005

The Economic Times

INDIA, June 8, 2005: The government is building a database of 1,500 yoga postures to prevent patenting in the U.S. India's more than 4,000-year-old yoga tradition may witness some trade disputes in the future. The Union government is building its muscles to bust the market monopolies on yoga that Western practitioners have been securing through copyrights, trademarks and patents. Yoga is a flourishing $27 billion-a-year business in the U.S. To start with, the government is making a digital database of 1,500 yoga postures and their therapeutic properties that can be used to challenge some of the 134 patents on yoga accessories, 150 yoga-related copyrights and 2,315 yoga trademarks the U.S. Patent Office has granted so far, sources said.

This database, comprising body cleansing practices, breathing exercises, yoga symbols called mudras, postures and special practices such as floating in water, will be digitally documented in five major internationa l languages so that it can be shared with prominent patent offices around the world. This is to prevent the grant of trademarks, copyrights and patents on yoga in the future. The database could also help avoid costly litigation to reverse the rights already granted. The National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources (NISCIR) is developing the database for the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Sidha and Homeopathy (Ayush) under the health ministry.

theist · June 26, 2005

What a strange idea to begin with. Strange like obtaining trademark status on Hare Krishna.

AncientMariner · July 2, 2005

I saw a show on 60 Minutes II or something where some yogi from India came over to America and has now built up a business teaching yoga like a drill instructor or something and holding his yoga sessions in real hot rooms. Apparently he is the yogi to the Hollywood stars and has gotten real rich off of it. He got into a lawsuit with some of the people that he trained to teach his yoga and claimed they weren't authorized to use his postures or something like that. You see some crazy sh*t in the Kali-yuga. /images/graemlins/smile.gif