Patents, Lawsuits, and the Future of Yoga

I recall the education session I took at IBM about patentability. If the core idea of their patent is what you have described, I don't think it is patentable. Their method is very intuitive. A setting where teacher sits in the middle on stage and students on each side can be used to deliver anything, not limited to yoga. The protection of such patent, if granted, will be over-generic.

As a patent author (the companies I worked for owns the patents) and an open-source software advocate, I now disagree with software patent.

As a yogi, I disagree with yoga patent.

I can understand online education is a tough business and where they are coming from. I can't help feeling a bit sad about exericising yoga being a pure business practice. I wouldn't feel strongly about a slaughter house patent something like this.

If someone do have a need to patent something related to yoga, please make it more 'genius'.

Lastly, congratulations! Only 3 months and you are already on someone's radar. That means you are doing something right.