Indian Government in Knots Over U.S. Yoga Patents
India Takes Issue With U.S. Patents on Yoga Techniques and Equipment
By MEENA HARTENSTEIN
May 22, 2007 —
An international battle over yoga has the Indian government all bent out of shape.
Last week, in response to reports that the U.S. had granted a patent to a yoga instructor, several members of the Indian parliament took to the media and blasted the U.S. patent office for its practice of giving out patents on yoga products and teaching methods.
The country that boasts of having invented yoga is aiming to keep it free of commercial entanglements and ownership. As first reported in the Indian press and in a recent New York Times op-ed, India's issue is with foreign patents and copyrights.
"We have had yoga for 5,000 years. It is not proper for anyone to give out patents on yoga," Vijay Kumar Malhotra, spokesperson of the Indian Parliament's Bharatiya Janata Party, told ABC News.
Though Malhotra did not name names, the Indian media has swirled with rumors that parliament is specifically targeting Bikram Choudhury, arguably the best-known "yoga patent holder" in the United States.
Choudhury, who was born in Calcutta, India, but now lives Los Angeles, built his "Bikram Yoga" empire on a series of 26 carefully choreographed asanas, or yoga positions, performed in a heated room and accompanied by a specific set of instructions. All of this, according to Choudhury, is patented, copyrighted and trademarked.
"I have a brand name," he says.
Celebrity Friends, Household Name
The Bikram Yoga brand has made Choudhury something of a celebrity -- his studios are all over the country, he sprinkles conversation with the names of A-list clients and friends like Quincy Jones and Shirley MacLaine, and his brand of yoga is practically a household name. Every year he reaps the profits from his best-selling books, videos and exclusive line of yoga clothing.
Yet despite the notoriety, or perhaps because of it, Choudhury is a divisive figure in the yoga world. Indians argue that he has stolen their ancient traditions and is now profiting from them, while Choudhury believes he is entitled to protect his style of yoga since he created it.
"No one in the world does yoga the way I do -- not even in India," he says.
Vinod Gupta, head of the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, an electronic encyclopedia of India's traditional medicine, sees it differently.
"It is not his own," says Gupta. "Those asanas were created in 2500 B.C."
Gupta's Digital Library is an archive-in-the-making. He and his team are cataloguing all of India's ancient knowledge on medicine to prevent individuals in other countries from patenting drugs or remedies that have existed in Indian culture for centuries.
The library was created in 2001 after India won its first patent battle against the United States. The U.S. had given out a patent on turmeric -- an ancient Indian medicinal remedy -- and India succeeded in having the patent revoked.
Now Gupta is taking the fight to yoga -- and striking some serious warrior poses. His goal is to prove that yoga was invented in India and therefore no one should be allowed to hold a patent for yoga or yoga products because no one else can claim that they created the ideas of yoga.
From Socks to Headaches
Though the Indian government is targeting their efforts towards blocking patents, the US patent office says this effort is misdirected. While the office has granted a range of patents on yoga products, such as "yoga socks" or "toe stretcher", it maintains that no patents have been issued on actual yoga moves, and that this is really a copyright issue.
While yoga socks might not sound very threatening, Indians have reacted strongly against the fear that the U.S. and other countries are stealing what is rightfully Indian.
The law in question is a little more complicated than what either side would like it to be, but it doesn't seem that blocking the patents alone would stop instructors like Choudhury from protecting their works. Experts say that if Choudhury has the legal trifecta of a U.S. patent, copyright and trademark, there is probably little the Indian government can do to stop him.
"They can't un-copyright his work," says Jane Ginsburg, a copyright law professor at Columbia University.
While he cannot actually "own" the routine -- other people are free to practice it in the park, for example -- Ginsburg believes that Choudhury's trademark gives him the right to control who profits from Bikram yoga in the U.S. Without his stamp of approval, no one else can advertise that they teach it.
If India does succeed in blocking the U.S. from giving out yoga patents, the effect will be felt by the biggest players such as Choudhury. For the small fish in the yoga pond who have not created brand names for themselves, it probably won't make a splash.
Despite the brewing controversy, Choudhury said he remains unfazed. He thinks rather than trying to block him from making money, India should focus on making its own profits from yoga.
"Yoga is a multimillion dollar industry," he says. "How much has India made out of it? Nothing. I think they are a little bit jealous."
Nevertheless, Gupta and the Indian government remain focused on their goal -- to protect yoga as an Indian invention. Gupta said he believes that by issuing patents, the U.S. government may be allowing individuals to restrict the practice.
"No one is against Bikram making money, but he shouldn't stop others from teaching yoga. We are not saying that you cannot perform yoga until you pay the government of India. We are saying, yoga belongs to our culture. It's our heritage," he said. "We want the system of knowledge that is India's to be available to everyone but not appropriated to a few."
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