Yoga Writer Loses Case to Copyright Yoga Poses
A yoga writer and teacher has lost his case that claimed he should have copyright protection for a yoga sequence complete with breathing exercises.
Image Credit: Dave Rosenblum (Flickr)
As Yoga Anonymous writes, U.S. District Court Judge Otis Wright ruled on Friday that last Friday that Bkiram Choudhary, founder of the popular Bikram “hot yoga” exercise class does not in fact have copyright protection for the 26 yoga posture sequence and two breathing exercises he developed.
The ruling stated that copyright may only apply to his books and videos describing Bikram yoga, and that the poses themselves could not be copyrighted.
This means that anyone is free to offer yoga classes in a hot room using the yoga poses Choudhary developed.
Blogger Jonathan Turley cites this case as being part of “a disturbing trend in copyright and trademark claims over things occurring in public or common phrases or terms.”
Read more here.
