WHO OWNS YOGA?

On July 21st last Sunday the nation celebrated International Yoga Day with each individual posting pictures of themselves doing their favourite yoga pose. This recreational activity has been a very important part of many lives around the world. People adopt to yoga to stay healthy, to overcome diseases and to bring in positivity to their lives. Yoga is a very vital part of Indian culture and the Indian government feels the need to protect and preserve it. The Ministry of Science and Technology is attempting to protect this traditional knowledge form international piracy. Around 1500 yoga poses have been shortlisted and added to the Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, which is India’s online repository which aims at protecting India’s traditional knowledge. So, does TDKL own yoga? Who owns the copyrights over yoga? Can yoga be copyrighted? Can yoga be patented? These are a few questions that a law student may come across when one thinks about connecting the dots between yoga and law. Well, luckily for you we have all the answers for your questions!

Copyright and Yoga

You might have heard of Bikaram Yoga or Hot Yoga. This form of yoga consists of about 26 asanas and 2 unique breathing techniques done in a hot room with around 45C. Bikaram yoga is famous all over the world, practiced more commonly so in USA. In 2011 Bikaram filed three law suits claiming that this yoga belongs to him and that anyone who performs it will be infringing on his copyrights. The question was if Bikaram Yoga was so different that a copyright should be granted? At first the lower court sided with him but then in 2012 the US Copyright Office gave a statement saying that yoga and asanas are not entitled to protection under copyrights law and subsequently the US federal court overruled the lower court’s order. That is when India’s Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) realized that our traditional ways are at risk and hence documented and added around 900 asanas to the Indian digital library.

Again, in the case of Institute of Inner Studies v Charlotte Anderson the court discussed if yoga can be copyrighted or trademarked. The court clearly stated that yogas or asanas are not ‘original literary works or dramatic works under the Copyright Act and therefore cannot be copyrighted.

Trademark and Yoga

In the IIS case mentioned earlier, the plaintiff claimed that the term ‘pranic healing’ was trademarked by them. One of the main criteria to obtain trademark registration under Section 9 of Trademarks Act is for it to be generic and non- distinctive in nature, but a conclusion was drawn in this case that registration of Yoga is not possible because it lacks the distinctive character. Hence the case was dismissed saying that the term ‘pranic healing’ was not able to distinguish any particular form of yoga and lacked the sources indicating to its origin.

Patent and Yoga

Now we know that Yoga cannot be copyrighted or trademarked, but can it be patented? There are a few conditions prescribed under the Patents Act in order to obtain a patent: a) it should relate to a manner of manufacture b) the manner of manufacture should be unusual c) It should be an outcome of an inventive activity. But Yoga does not in any way satisfy any of these conditions, the exact origin of Yoga is definitely unclear, the practice of yoga is not something very unusual because its been performed around the world and it is not an outcome of any new activity since its been around from ages.

The CSIR has successfully put down all the major yoga asanas in the digital library, so if anyone claims patent for any form of yoga, they can file an opposition in the very early stage itself. But a patent can be definitely granted if a person comes up with a new asana or yoga position, but the learned Indian gurus and experts claim that it is highly impossible for anyone to come up with a new yoga asana. This is mostly because the knowledge of yoga has existed even before the Industrial Civilization and hence every possible asana and ways to be done have already been discovered.

The UN declaration of 21st June as an International Yoga Day saw people turning their heads towards India and promoting our very own precious cultural knowledge. In India, there are policies being made that would bring yoga to major sectors of the country like schools and governmental organizations. While we are still in the earlier stages of protecting our ancient treasure, the first successful step was including the yoga asanas in the digital library. I feel that yoga can be a very important asset to our country and would help diversify our intellectual property rights. Bio- piracy is something that we should definitely be worried about, we have already witnessed this once in the case of Basmati rice and it might happen again in the case of yoga. There is a huge responsibility to safeguard something that is of important national interest. Hence, there is a need to extend more protection and ensure that no one claims rights over something that has been an integrate part of our culture and society.