India moves to patent yoga poses in bid to protect traditional knowledge

India moves to patent yoga poses in bid to protect traditional knowledge

Beware: the spine-twisting yoga pose you strike in your gym or village hall is not just a struggle between your mind and body – it's also the subject of a global battle for patents pending.


By Dean Nelson in New Delhi

Last Updated: 1:57AM GMT 23 Feb 2009


India has set up a team of Hindu gurus and 200 scientists to identify all ancient yoga positions or asanas and register each one to stop "patent pirates" from stealing its "traditional knowledge".

So far, they have added 600 asanas to India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library to stop so-called gurus in the United States and Europe patenting established poses as their own.

India has been angered at attempts by mostly American yoga teachers to patent moves from their classes as their own originals.

Since its arrival in Britain and America in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when it was popularised by Beatles guitarist George Harrison, among others, Yoga has become a $225 billion industry.

In India, however, it remains collective knowledge – practiced in public parks where gurus often teach fast breathing exercises, like pranayam, and different 'sun-salutations,' free of charge.

more...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/4783753/India-moves-to-patent-yoga-poses-in-bid-to-protect-traditional-knowledge.html

Very, very lame India. :eyes:

westerners...

But as the number of Western yoga teachers has grown, there has been a steady increase in patent applications claiming each pose in their class is not part of the ancient discipline of mind and body, but their own unique invention. In the United States alone, there have been more than 130 yoga-related patents, 150 copyrights and 2,300 trademarks. Now India's Traditional Knowledge Digital Library is being made available to patents offices throughout the world so they can establish whether the claim is a genuine innovation or "prior art" from Indian systems of medicine.

So far a team of yoga gurus from nine schools have worked with government officials and 200 scientists from the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to scan 35 ancient texts including the Hindu epics, the Mahabharata and the Bhagwad Gita, and Patanjali's Yoga Sutras to register each native pose.

The attempt by US teachers to patent traditional poses has caused disbelief and anger in India, where it has been practiced for around 6,000 years.

"Copyrights over yoga postures and trademarks on yoga tools have become rampant in the West. Till now, we have traced 130 yoga-related patents in the US. We hope to finish putting on record at least 1500 yoga postures by the end of 2009," said Dr V.P Gupta, of the CSIR, who created the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.

very, very lame, american "gurus."

You can't patent a body movement.

and yes you can - see all the iPhone patens that were just approved - they patten finger jesters among other hand movements as an input device..

which is what prompted the response in India. You might want to reread the article.

It's not something they came up with. They are trying to fight fire with fire.

I think the patenting of these moves is nuts on the face of it, but I can't blame India for trying to preserve its culture.

"there has been a steady increase in patent applications claiming each pose in their class is not part of the ancient discipline of mind and body, but their own unique invention."

Coming from a long term dancer's perspective, you can't patent moves.

announcing my patent on scratching my ass, anyone that scratches their ass from this point on, owes me a nickel.

Honestly, I believe some things just shouldn't be patented and this reeks of abuse, Americans need to quit acting like Ferengi.

It's what the world runs on.

Same concept, and it won't work.

They are patenting them to "to stop so-called gurus in the United States and Europe patenting established poses as their own."

Yes, yes, I do!

I hate that!

I hate it when they act as if you can't possibly have read the article, when your position is based upon law, not some silly notion in their head.

America - that great society that patents stem cells and DNA.

off of yoga.

collect that I can see. Even Americans trying to file patents; I don't know how they planned on collecting. Makes no sense to me.

Good luck with that. Prior art doesn't get much more prior.

Did you have something else to offer beyond rudeness?

the inventors have been dead years ago, in either case

But I think all the mentioned patent attempts--Indian, American and otherwise--are stupid, for the reason I gave.

and, in fact, this is made clear in the OP. To wit:

"India has been angered at attempts by mostly American yoga teachers to patent moves from their classes as their own originals."

Read before you post, people.

Once we get past the insanity of present-day intellectual property rights - among other things, the Monsanto-ADM-etc. offensive to patent and charge licensing on genes in seeds INDIANS among others have used for millennia - THEN we can laugh at this. But as long as the law and courts give credence to self-made gurus scrambling to patent positions and then charge others for using them, it shouldn't surprise that India moves in with its far superior claim, as the originating country.