Maharishi Foundation sues Montana man for copyright infringement

FAIRFIELD – Maharishi Foundation USA has filed a lawsuit against a Montana man for allegedly violating its trademark due to the similarity of his business’s name and the name of the foundation’s proprietary form of meditation.

Leif Bjelland of Missoula, Montana, owns a company called Transcend Today, Inc. In a complaint filed Dec. 30, 2025 in the U.S. Southern District of Iowa, attorneys for Maharishi Foundation USA, Inc. argue Bjelland is infringing on the foundation’s trademarks and unjustly enriching himself through his contacts in Iowa, specifically by causing “infringing products” to be sold in Iowa resulting in “tortious injury” to the foundation.

At issue is the foundation’s trademark of the Transcendental Meditation program, a proprietary form of meditation taught only by the foundation and its licensees. The foundation states in its complaint that it has been using this trademarked method since at least 1965, and that it has been registered as a trademark since at least 1978.

The complaint indicates that Bjelland was a student of the Transcendental Meditation program no later than February 2020 and that he attended TM trainings and workshops, including traveling to Fairfield to take advanced TM courses in September 2024. The complaint states that Bjelland completed a form in which he agreed not to impart the TM technique on others until becoming a certified teacher of the program.

Transcend Today offers workshops on “heroic breathwork” that aim to calm the nervous system, reduce anxiety and enhance self-awareness. According to its website www.transcendtoday.com, this breathwork “connects you with the version of you that’s been waiting beneath the noise.”

When The Union attempted to access the company’s website on Jan. 21, its Facts and Questions page had been removed. Furthermore, the web address transcendtoday.com sent users to a page with the words “This domain is available” followed by “Inquire with leif@heroicbreath.com.”

The foundation states in its complaint that it informed Bjelland in August 2025 that “Transcend Today” infringed on the foundation’s trademark, and filed a petition to cancel the “Transcend Today” trademark.

“Bjelland initially communicated his intent to cancel the ‘Transcend Today’ mark to the Foundation, but he subsequently changed course and decided to resist the Foundation’s Petition to Cancel,” states the complaint.

Represented by attorneys Jason Sytsma and Molly Parker of Shuttleworth & Ingersoll P.L.C. of Cedar Rapids, the foundation argues that Bjelland’s “Transcend Today” is “confusingly similar” to the foundation’s trademark and is used to promote services “similar to the self-improvement, health and personal development services for which the Foundation uses its word marks.”

“The Foundation has been economically and/or financially damaged as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ wrongful use of its marks and/or by Defendants’ use of a colorable imitation of the Foundation’s marks,” the foundation stated.

The Union has reached out to Bjelland via email and through his website seeking comment on this case, but he had not replied by press time on Jan. 21.

The foundation is asking Bjelland to cease using the “Transcend Today” trademark, to pay the foundation all damages the foundation suffered from profits “wrongly derived” by Bjelland and his company, and to pay three times the actual damages suffered by the foundation along with attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by this court case.

Call Andy Hallman at 641-575-0135 or email him at andy.hallman@southeastiowaunion.com