US and yoga

Being the most powerful country in the world is easy, becoming one is the hard part. And hence the American ignorance of world culture and it's related obsession with absurdity continues. The latest in the line is it's patenting of certain poses in yoga. Under what moral/legal/intellectual/spiritual authority can the US patent yoga, a system that is India's gift to the world. A system of exercises that aims to promote greater control over the mind and body, yoga dates back to at least 5000 years in Indian tradition. The philosophy of yoga embodies the Indian culture's understanding of the human mind and body, through centuries of wisdom.
But in the 21st century a country whose history is a fraction of the entire lifetime of yoga, who has in no means contributed to the development of yoga's philosophy, issues copyrights on the practice of yoga. Ludicrous indeed!