After the patents of neem and turmeric, it is now the turn of Vastu, a popular ancient Indian architectural concept, which has been found registered as a trademark nearly five years ago by a German company.

This fact was recently uncovered by the Delhi-based Vastu Shastra Institute, which is considering taking a legal recourse against the registration.

"We found out that the term vastu is a registered trademark in Germany and under the World Trade Organisation rules, companies in other countries cannot use the word vastu in any comemercial venture. We are planning to fight the registration and will examine what legal recourse we can take under the German trademark law," Ashwini Bansal, director of the institute, said in New Delhi.

Bansal said the fact came to light during his interaction with a German vastu scholar Marcus Schmieke, who had been taken to court by a Germany-based company Samhita, which has registered the term, for using vastu in his academy's name.

Subsequently, he had to change the name of his academy from Vastu Academy to 'Vasati'.

When contacted Schmieke said that the trademark for Vastu was given to Samhita, a Maharishi Mahesh Yogi run institute, sometime in 1998-99.

Bansal said no Indian company has registered the term vastu, even though the science has existed in the country since the Vedic period. "We find the mention of vastu in the Rig Veda," he said.

India has been fighting against patents granted for the use of neem and turmeric by several countries. It has in the recent past also fought patents granted to basmati rice.