Patent for yogic postures? Yeah someone tried the trick in the US, but the patent authorities have not caved in. At least that is what the government of India says.

Federal Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal told the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of the Indian Parliament in New Delhi last week that the United States Patent and Trade Mark Office had not registered claims for patenting yogic postures.

"A search of the database of the US Patent and Trade Mark Office has shown that no patent has been granted to yogic postures in that country," Sibal said in a written reply to a question posed by a member in the Upper House.

"Patents granted on products, processes or methods which were already in the domain of public knowledge, are not legally valid," he explained while pointing out that since yogic postures are well known for ages, no valid patent could be granted to them.

Earlier, in June this year amidst a raging controversy over attempts to get yoga postures patented, the US embassy in India had clarified that it had only granted patents on "new and non-obvious devices that may be used in conjunction with yoga."

However, those patents would not include any yoga positions, the embassy had said, while dismissing media reports about the patents as "inaccurate."