Osho foundation loses ‘Osho’ trademark

The Osho International Foundation (OIF) Zurich,that is largely run by the Pune Meditation Resort’s management team,have lost the trademark of the word Osho in the US in a court case spanning almost a decade. The Trademark and Trial Appeal Board in the US,where the case was filed,has found that “the term Osho is generic for the meditations devised by the mystic Osho and the meditation and religious movement arising from there. As a result defendant OIF cannot foreclose others from utilising the term OSHO to describe their own goods and services based upon such meditations and movements.”

The decision is the result of an opposition lodged by Osho Friends International against Osho International Foundation in a case registerd in 1999.

In response,the Osho International Meditation Resort,Pune in a press release has clarified that this ruling is applicable only in the US and not in any other country,including India. Amrit Sadhana,part of the management team at the meditation resort,said that this decision will have no effect on Osho’s copyright which is protected by international treaties around the world. She said that they intend to appeal against the ruling at the earliest. For more than 40 years the Osho Foundations have always acted on Osho’s request to protect his name,his copyright and his work and will continue to do so,she said. Taking exception to the ruling,the release states that it means that “Osho is now in the same category as computers and tissues.”