India struggles to protect Yoga heritage

It was only a matter of time before Yoga became an international trade issue with patent and copyright battles and legal struggles to own posture and disciplines. With over 20 million practitioners in the US alone, all eyes are on Yoga with billions of dollars at stake. Patanjali would be certainly be amused.

MUMBAI, INDIA, October 6, 2005: Yoga has to remain an Indian discipline. It's in this spirit New Delhi's health minister has approved a project of almost US$3.6 million to protect on the international level the patent on the postures involved in this ancient discipline that is an expression of Indian culture and religion, which the West has been trying to get a hold of after it gained worldwide popularity. A team of experts will produce a digital document on the 1,500 asana or yoga postures, to be translated in English, French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese, and distributed in 11 countries. Under the supervision of V. K. Gupta - a health ministry expert - the team, which can count on the collaboration of more than 100 members and 15 Indian religious schools, examined 16 Vedic texts (Hindu sacred texts) to illustrate yoga's historical origins and evolution, said patent lawyer K.M. Gopakumar. In the West, yoga generates huge revenues in the range of billions of dollars. Many improvised gurus, of Indian origin, start up their own yoga business. The Indian health ministry has recorded more than a thousand yoga-related websites run by these "gurus" who publicise yoga postures and practices claiming that they are their original creation and therefore protected with an international patent and covered by copyrights. Once the Indian government's document is issued, ''the so-called life-style gurus cannot claim copyright and allege infringement by others," said Gopakumar. In the United States, in Europe and Japan at least 150 yoga postures are covered by patents, says the health ministry. In the US alone 2,300 yoga schools and yoga practices have copyrights. Yoga is also connected to health, as underlined by the Indian health ministry's project, which aims to protect this wide religious, scientific and cultural heritage, which includes 75,000 formulas of ayurvedic medicine and 50,000 formulas of unani herbal remedies. - read more... www.adnki.com.