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India to Patent 900 Yoga Asanas to Prevent Claims by Foreign Companies

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Saint Patanjali developed Yoga Asanas for the welfare of humanity. Bhagavad Gita extols its importance. But monetary gains and never ending greed of modern multinational companies and certain individuals has landed Yoga postures in world of patents. There ever-slow government bureaucrats and administration in India has finally woken up to the yoga patent issue – this after nearly 250 yoga postures were patented around the world.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in India has prepared patent formats of nearly 900 yoga asanas (postures) and has included them in the digitalised Traditional Knowledge Library (TKDL), set up by the council to collect and record traditional treatment therapy knowledge.

The Council claims that yoga asanas registered with it enjoy the status of being patented.

Hindustan Times reports

"Video recordings of the asanas are also being made and recorded to prevent them from being stolen," said TKDL director Dr VK Gupta. The CSIR began the project in 2006.

These 900 asanas have been collected from Patanjali's classic work on yoga, as well as other ancient classics like the Bhagwat Gita.

Gupta said a number of countries had already laid claim to around 250 of these postures. Some foreign companies have even patented some of them.

Foreign companies have been selling some of the yoga postures as therapies to relieve stress or backaches.

"How can someone else patent these asanas which are a part of our traditional treatment therapy knowledge? They should not be allowed to use them for commercial purposes," Dr Gupta said.

The CSIR's next step will be to move against the yoga patents already registered abroad. The United States patent office alone has issued around 3000 patents on yoga postures and their variations.

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