FW: Fight to stop ancient arts falling into private hands

[Vijai Singhal]

Friends,

Please see this article that appeared in SMH on 19/05/13. I think it is a good development by the Indian Govt to protect the misuse of India's very rich heritage.

> Subject: The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition: Fight to stop ancient arts falling into private hands
> From: vijai_...@hotmail.com
> Date: Sun, 19 May 2013 20:24:27 +1000
> To: vijai_...@hotmail.com
>
> This article is from the May 19 issue of The Sydney Morning Herald Digital Edition. To subscribe for $4.50 a week, visit http://smh.com.au/digitaledition.
> The BIG idea
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> Catherine Armitage
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> Move over Indiana Jones, there’s a new breed of prospector scouring the world for treasure. It’s not lost or stolen cultural artefacts these new buccaneers are after but traditional knowledge that might turn a buck, whether it’s a potion or a yoga pose. They wield not whips and guns but patents, trademarks and lawsuits.
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> The global knowledge economy has turned the old saying on its head: it’s not who you know or what you have, but what you know. And ancient cultures know a lot, even if it’s not all written down in bits and bytes yet.
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> Bikram Choudhury, a yoga entrepreneur based in the United States, really turned up the heat by seeking copyright on 26 yoga postures or asanas in sequence, which in ‘‘ his’ ’ version of the ancient Indian practice are performed at temperatures of 40.6 degrees. Elton John, Lady Gaga, Daniel Craig and Jennifer Aniston are among a constellation of celebrities reported to be devotees.
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> The yoga industry’s value in the US is estimated at $6 billion. The Indian government has been involved in expensive litigation over US patents given not just to yoga postures and products but also traditional medicine and food plants including turmeric and basmati rice.
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> In an effort to head off this gold rush, the Indian government has compiled a 30-millionpage database setting out India’s ancient cultural knowledge. The Traditional Knowledge Digital Library includes 54 textbooks on India’s traditional healing system and more than 1500 yoga postures.
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> The idea is to prevent the wisdom of centuries from being locked up in private ownership.
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> When confronted with applications related to traditional knowledge , examiners will be able to see evidence of ‘‘ prior art’’ , a legal term referring to any previous patent, technical paper, public knowledge or use of an invention that makes it ineligible for a patent.
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> A number of countries around the world are looking at following India’s model, presumably at no charge.
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> www.uq.edu.au/ccsc/traditionalknowledge-and-the-traditionalknowledge-digital-librarydigital-quandaries-andother-concerns
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> Copyright © 2013 The Sydney Morning Herald
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> Sent from my iPad