I think the patent in Bikram yoga refers to the 36 asanas in a controlled heat environment rather than the asanas itself. Anyone can start their own yoga style using the same 36 asanas, but mix it with the sequence and add the element of heating the yoga room temperature to 110 degrees, only then are you infringing on the patent.

As many of you know, recently India developed a version of the expensive and multi-pilled AIDS cocktail but were able to combine all of the different medicines into a single pill and can sell it for $1.

US Pharma cried bloody murder at the thought of Indians selling this innovative life saver to desperate places like Africa when they should be getting rightfully more wealthy by selling mountains of pills to health organizations, NGOs and countries that can barely afford them even if they could get people to take 50 different pills a day. Big pharma is using patent law to protect their profits I.P.

My first thought was that the hypocrisy of some of these patent laws might give India some leverage to provide cheap and effective medicines to its own population and other countries without interference from the pharmas and our gov't which will bend over and take it at the snap of their fingers.

Yeah Right, like hypocrisy ever stopped these corporations from making an extra dime at the expense of someone else's life.

but mix it with the sequence and add the element of heating the yoga room temperature to 110 degrees, only then are you infringing on the patent.

I wonder how many degrees away from 110 would eliminate the infringement?

I thought there was a copyright on the term "Bikram" also, which was why you see "hot yoga" now at so many studios instead of "Bikram yoga." Is it the temperature or the poses that are patented? From what I was told, Bikram does a lot of non-traditional postures that are really bad for your body. Maybe this was biased info since it came from a friend of mine who hates Bikram, though :)

As many of you know, recently India developed a version of the expensive and multi-pilled AIDS cocktail but were able to combine all of the different medicines into a single pill and can sell it for $1.

About time. Cheers to the Indian govt. for this one. My mother, like most Sri Lankan moms, would feed us a gotu kola salad (with onions and tomato..became quite yum as I grew into appreciating slightly bitter foods) so imagine my surprise when I first spotted Gotu Kola herbal pills.

Also imagine my puzzlement when I'd hear 'alternative health practitioners' (aka hippies) talk about Gotu Kola as a stimulant. Took me ages to figure out what they meant, because we ate gotu kola (and that's what it's called in Sinhalese) for cardiovascular, neurological, etc. health. Finally realized that they'd confused it with Kola Nuts. idiots.

That Bikram yoga guy is an opportunistic freak. And from what I understand, the problems with his 'hot yoga' methods are that:
1. people become really, unhealthily, dehydrated
2. the heat allows for a deeper stretch, which isn't bad in itself...but some people end up stretching past what their bodies are ready to do (in a normal temp room) and they hurt themselves without knowing it.

As for his pose sequence...he says his "scientifically" patented sequence is the 'optimal order' for a whole bunch of things that basically mean hooey. Also, amusingly (depending on your sense of shadenfreude) the FAQ section on his site lists many variations on the question "I'm in pain after Bikram yoga. Is this normal?"

Anyway, speaking of men I'd like to slap until the brown comes off...publishing rumor has it that Deepak Chopra is writing his "interpretation" of the kama sutra. Just so you know I ain't making this up, see here.

Is it just me, or does he look creepily naked on that site?

It's not just you. Thought exactly the same thing myself.

And the "baldy in the front, squirrel-tail in the back" hairdo isn't helping him look any less creepy.

Maybe he jacks up the heat to subliminally promote a nudist agenda...?

The "secular" forces will not stand for this "saffronization" of Medicine. "Prior existing knowledge" is a code-word for saffronizing.

/end sarcasm

only, in imitable American style, the potential profits are much greater.

and the stakes are much more serious. Can't find a link right now, but there's a book by a Cal polisci Prof called the success of open source that notes the immense potential to apply the opensource model/Nonprofit to pharmaceuticals.

"Claim: 80% of U.S. patents on medicinal plants by 2000 were of Indian origin"

This is why I don't feel any pain when american corporations bitch about copying of their drugs by Indian companies.