India's Yoga Patent Showdown

How can any Tom, Dick and Harry, who has no true knowledge of Yoga, can get patent of Yoga, the traditional knowledge of India?
Swami Ramdev

India rises to fight yoga coprights, patents. Greed and desire. Starring Kate Moss and Bikram Choudhury.

Fake Babas and others who regularly consume liquor or eat meat have mushroomed in large numbers as experts of Yoga. Their interest is commercial.
Swami Ramdev

India, hot the heels of Sukhetu Meta's inspirational call-to-arms — an Op Ed piece at the New York Times republished here — has been clamoring to (rightfully) reclaim its vast wellspring of traditional knowledge, as greedy opportunists within the US's flawed and culturally irresponsible copyright and patent laws continue to successfully trademark, copyright, and patent India's increasingly lucrative folk knowledge and wisdom.

Yoga cannot be patented as it belongs to the entire country and humanity. Also yoga cannot be run like a company.
Swami Ramdev

Bitten by patent blows in the past over basmati and turmeric, India doesn't want to be caught off guard again by the West with the rising ubiquity of yoga across the globe, not merely as a practice but as an economic force. Hopefully India's noise will bring some action against the current arrogance of US-based yoga guru Bikram Choudhury's and his efforts to patent his steamy string of yoga poses.

posted by
Spiros Antonopoulos

TAGS — Bikram Choudhury, copyright, culture, India, patent, Swami Ramdev, tradition, yoga

Remarks

4 total remarks for this post. Add your own remarks below.

Mon 18 Jun 2007 at 08:27PM

jody

Also yoga cannot be run like a company. --Swami Ramdev

Ramdev should tell that to the folks selling his "medicines."

Tue 17 Jul 2007 at 03:04PM

santosh

This means if it gets patented,individuals will loose right to breath,or have to pay for breathing.hahha

Tue 27 Nov 2007 at 04:45PM

trisha

Perhaps Bikram would not feel he has to patent / protect it if there were not so many charlatans peddling their adulterated / altered versions of it to an unsuspecting vulnerable public;
Bikram is not the fake; he is very transparent and his lineage is pure. At the very least this way practitioners of this style of yoga can be sure they are getting at least minimum safe standard and good yoga all rounder

Tue 11 Mar 2008 at 04:18AM

Ann-Eva Hallqvist

How can anyone even think of steeling a traditional thousands of years old wisdom and coll it his yogapatent??

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