World

India to patent traditional yoga poses

by Yuliya Talmazan | February 23, 2009 at 03:15 pm

558 views | 2 Recommendations | 5 comments

Indian government plans to recognize the practice of yoga as “traditional knowledge” and patent all yoga postures that were ever mentioned in traditional Indian texts to prevent others from monetizing on what in their opinion belongs only to India. So far, 600 poses have been documented. Yoga is a popular form of exercise in North America and is a multi-billion dollar industry. India says the so-called yoga gurus and teachers can’t claim that the sets of poses they teach in their classes are uniquely theirs despite acknowledging that their classes build on traditional yoga.

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.

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

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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.

This raises the question of ownership and appropriation of the things conventionally thought of as collective knowledge. India is planning to patent traditional yoga postures, but by the same token, Scotland could easily patent curling, Russia – perogies, China – fireworks, which would ruin a multitude of businesses who capitalize on these traditional “inventions.” Does it make sense to patent something that is a distinctive part of a country’s traditional heritage and as such has been widely publicized and adopted throughout the world? After all, the most basic tools and practices that we use in our daily lives have been designed by someone at some point in history. Does this warrant giving the descendants of the “inventor” or the country they identified with during their lifetime copy rights to their creation?

What do you think?

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azzayindia

at 03:18 on February 25th, 2009

well the patenting thing began from states if the Americans can patent Basmati rice,then indian have full right to patent Yoga postures too as they have been in the traditon of the country for so long.

Zorba (not verified)

at 00:00 on February 27th, 2009

Absolutely justified. India should patent the Yoga postures since you have a bucket load of fake gurus in our west doing it all wrong and even more shamelessly wanting to patent it themselves. In fact, its an absolute shame that a lot of companies coyly try patenting stuff that's been in India for years. What a bunch of losers.

There's a bozo called Karenke4 who comments above saying that these same poses have been used in dance and exercise for ever. I can't stop laughing. Get your facts right first. You obviously suffer from very poor knowledge on Yoga or dance. Shallow opinions like yours you get dime a dozen.

Forget about patenting love, hate and jealousy.You should patent the word 'stupidity'. It truly belongs to you.

Karenke4

at 15:58 on February 23rd, 2009

These same poses have been used in dance and exercise for ever. I don't see how they can patent a posture! Seems a bit ridiculous. Will we patent the hop, skip and jump next? Then maybe we can start patenting love, hate and jealousy. I want in on that.

westernyogini (not verified)

at 18:19 on February 23rd, 2009

I completely see the logic in this. Unfortunately some yoga teachers have taken it upon themselves to copywrite certain sequences of poses. It is an undisputed fact that yoga began in India many, many thousands of years ago. There are seals that were found in the ancient Indus Valley civilization depicting yoga asanas. It pre-dates modern Hinduism. So to have people that are relatively new to the practice (when I say new I mean within the scope of history) to copywrite and say that they own certain yoga poses or sequences is ridiculous. India is just trying to preserve their own history.

Most westerners do not truely practice yoga, they practice physical postures. Yoga is so much more than a physical excercise. Now, before anyone gets offended by that statement I know that there are plenty of westerners who do truely practice and take their yoga off the mat, but let's be honest, to the majority it's just a way to get flexible and strong and is not a path.