Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Is There Anything We Won't Patent?

It seems like everyone wants to stake a claim on anything that could possibly make them a dollar, and mankind has found a new industry where nobody has yet laid claim: yoga. Wait, isn't yoga an ancient spiritual practice, created and passed down through generations of Indians? How could any one person or corporation own yoga? To the most simple-minded person, this may seem impossible, but we live in a new world - a world where biotech companies scour the earth in search of pieces of DNA to claim and Monsanto is busy patenting the very source of the worlds food. Soon companies will own the very foundation of life, as well as the seeds to grow the food necessary to sustain those lives. Well as ridiculous as the idea of patenting DNA is, surely nobody could patent yoga. Yet, a recent NYT Op-ed shows that the law has once again defied logic, and thousands of patents for yoga and related products have been issued by the U.S. patent office.

My issue with this is where does it end? Are all rituals or traditions open for patents and copyrights. Could I patent a prayer? Or maybe the patent only designates certain techniques or physical actions, as would apply to specific yoga poses. Would that allow me to patent the "jumpshot" or maybe baseballs pitching motion? Should I receive royalties every time a pitcher throws a strike? No? Then why should researches have to pay to study the breast cancer gene or why should poor farmers pay for seeds that have been created naturally for thousands of years? Privatization and patent protection may have certain benefits, but a line must be drawn when the private ownership acts to the detriment of the public good.

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