19 January,2009 09:06 AM IST | | Chandran Iyer
Sexual peace: Osho had propounded the theory of sex as a means of attaining super consciousness
US patents and trademark office refuses to patent the word Osho
Rajneesh Chandra Mohan Jain or Osho, as he is known to millions of his admirers, who taught that meditative sex can be a vehicle to reach superconsciousness, continues to create controversies 19 years after he his death.
A group in the US called Friends of Osho challenged the Koregaon Park-based Osho Foundation's right over the word 'Osho' in the United States Patent and Trademark office (USPTO), which ruled on Tuesday that the name Osho is generic and cannot be registered as a trademark in the US.
Swami Chaitanyakeerti, editor, Osho World magazine, and member of Friends of Osho Friend, said "Thanks to this ruling anybody who is a lover of Osho can use his name or meditation technique or start a centre in his name.
The Osho Foundation had reduced the Master to a commodity like a cold drink by patenting his name and works. Several centres that taught Osho's meditation techniques closed down because the Osho Foundation demanded hefty royalties."
Ma Yoga Neelam, personal secretary to Osho, who was once in the inner circle of Osho, but was later removed from the Osho Commune, Pune, after his death, said "Osho told me, and reiterated as much in his public discourse, that he did not want his name to be trademarked as he wanted his message to be widely available. But two foreign members of the commune secretly patented it."
Ma Amrit Sadhana, member of the Managing Team of Osho International Meditation Resort, Pune said "After the ruling, anyone in the US can create a meditation technique and call it Osho Meditation. Not only can the ruling be challenged in higher courts in the US but, across the globe, the copyright Osho continues to belong to Osho International."u00a0
