Open Source Yoga

Open source Yoga

URL = http://www.yogaunity.org

Against the patenting of yoga techniques.

Context

Submitted by Frederick Noronha:

"WHO OWNS YOGA RIGHTS? India in damage-control mode after US 'guru' gets copyright

From the Hindustan Times of Friday, June 30, 2006

INDIA IS willing to go to the mat over yoga.

That's because authorities are incensed Bikram Choudhury, the self-proclaimed Hollywood "yoga teacher to the stars," got a US copyright on his style of yoga four years ago.

In response, India has put 100 historians and scientists to work cataloguing 1500 yoga poses recorded in ancient texts written in Sanskrit, Urdu and Persian.

India will use the catalogue to try to block anyone from cornering the market on the 5000-year-old discipline of stretching, breathing and meditating.

Bikram says he sought legal protection for his yoga because "it's the American way."

"You cannot drive the car if you do not have a driver's license," he explains. "You cannot even do a massage if you don't have a license," And, he says, you shouldn't be able to teach his Bikram Yoga unless youpay him for a license.

The Indian counter-attack goes way beyond Bikram. The government wants to thwart anyone who tries to profit from the nation's "traditional knowledge," from yoga to 150,000 ancient medical remedies.

India already has successfully challenged one US patent granted to two India-born Americans who used the spice tumeric in a wound-healing product. That patent was revoked by the US.

"Practically every Indian housewife knows (tumeric) and uses it to heal wounds," says V K Gupta, of the National Institute of Science Communication and Information Resources, which is developing the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library.

When completed, perhaps as soon as December, the digital library will be translated into English, French, Spanish, German and Japanese and sent to patent, copyright and trademark offices around the world.

That way, when someone such as Bikram tries to get a copyright on yoga moves or patents on ancient medicinal cures, those offices could say: "No, that's not original. They've been doing it in India for thousands of years."

India has no plans to challenge Bikram in court, Gupta says. But it hopes the digital library will stop others from following him."

More Information

Intellectual Property Rights and Traditional Knowledge: The Case of Yoga

By Srinivas, Krishna Ravi: " Yoga with origins in India has become part of global consumer culture and has been transformed into what is called as 'transnational yoga'. Hence it has many meanings in different contexts. This article addresses the controversies and discusses the complexities involved in intellectual property rights related to Yoga."