Copyright of Yogasana and Pranayama

Copyright of Yogasans and Pranyama

In Indian history yogasana and pranayama are deeply rooted and people are following the same for a long time. Delhi High Court in a recent judgment opined that the Pranayama and Pranic healings are not subjected to protection of copyright (Institute For Inner Studies & Ors. vs. Charlotte Anderson & Ors.)

In this case the subject matter was the protection of Pranic and Pranayama Technique obtained by the Plaintiff through research and experience. The Plaintiff raised the contention for protection of the Techniques under Copyright law and contended that the same are subject to copyright.

High Court set aside the protection over the technique on the grounds as follows:

1.       The first case which Hon’ble High Court sought is of US Supreme Court in Baker vs. Seldon, 101 U.S. 99 in the year 1880 in which the copyright issue were raised  for book keeping technique . The protection which is conferred by the copyright is the book containing the manner of the expression of the art and not the art described in the book. The Supreme Court of US had further noted that the novelty of the description of the process in the book is also immaterial as it is merely an assertion of the person seeking protection, the actual testing of the novelty in the subject matter is the domain of the patent office and not the copyright office.

2.       The next case to which Hon’ble High Court referred was of Feist Publications Inc Vs Rural Telephone Services Company, 499 U.S. 340 (1991) wherein the court was concerned with the question relating to the scope and the extent of protection of copyright in the compilation of pre-existing data in the form of telephone directory.

3.       The position of law starting from Baker (Supra) uptill Feist (Supra) remains the same and consistent when it comes to confer protection in relation to fact based works or the works which are derived from pre-existing data, scientific principles or arts which is to identify the limits of protection by finding out what is an idea in a given case and what is an expression by asking the question as to where the originality in copyright sense resides. The originality in copyright sense would mean the hard work, labour and skill extended truly by author in relation to creativity and not in relation to innovation done in respect of deriving some principle or method.

4.       Hon’ble High Court relied on the Court of Appeal in UK in the year 2007 in a case titled as Baigent & Leigh vs. The Random House Group Limited, (2007) FSR 24 which has also reiterated the similar principle by stating that though the historical research takes time, effort and skill to collect material for a book but the said time, skill and effort do not make the pre-existing facts in the history copyrightable and the only expression of an idea in the form of language in which work is composed along with selection arrangement and compilation of the research material is protected and not a historical research in itself.

5.       The overall effect of the elaborated discussion done above is that whenever the protection on the premise of copyright is sought for in relation to books and literature describing the useful art, principle, historical fact or events or mode of performing ancient exercise or any other process for that matter, the copyright protection shall vest in the language employed to describe in the art in the book, the selection and arrangement of the facts or Asanas and their presence in the sequential manner in the book wherein the hard work, skill, labour has been expended by the master in doing so and the reproduction right to this shall be available exclusively to the master or persons deriving title from him.

6.       The protection shall not be extended to include the monopoly right over the performance of the said Asanas of Yoga or Pranic Healing on the strength of the manner of the expression as stated in book as doing the same would be giving the monopoly right to the art or technique itself which is available in public domain from time immemorial which is also evident from the books available on record authored by Swami Ramachakra since 1906.

Please take note that  the content as published above is the extract of the judgment given by the Hon’ble High Court and is being summarised by the Author as per its own understanding and knowledge. The reader is advised to go through the original judgment delivered before getting any conclusion of whatsoever in nature. The authors do not intend to hurt any class of society and this article shall be taken only for the information purposes. The Author or any of its associate shall not be responsible for any damages occurred due to any person due to any action taken solely based on this Article.