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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, February 5, 2004: Bikram Choudhury opened one of his first yoga schools in San Francisco in 1973 and now boasts 900 studios worldwide. He copyrighted, trademarked and franchised his poses, breathing techniques and dialogue, creating the first chain of its kind. He also hired lawyers who sent a flurry of cease-and-desist letters warning yoga teachers in the Bay Area and beyond not to teach his yoga or anything “derivative” if they haven’t graduated from his $5,000-per-person training program and are not paying a studio franchise fee. His letters threaten a penalty of $150,000 per infringement, says this article. Now, a San Francisco nonprofit organization of yoga enthusiasts is countering with a federal lawsuit attacking the guru’s claim that yoga is proprietary. They say that yoga is a 5,000-year-old tradition that cannot be owned. The suit is asking the judge to determine whether Choudhury is entitled to copyright and trademark his material under federal copyright laws. A trial date has been set for next February.



“We’re not disputing that Mr. Choudhury did something creative and useful in putting the postures together in a certain order,” said Elizabeth Rader, a copyright attorney representing the nonprofit Open source Yoga Unity. She says Choudhury took the 26 postures from 84 classical ones that have been taught in India for centuries. “Our belief is that you can’t treat the poses as private property. We want this clarified. Right now, people out there are trying to teach yoga, and they’re not sure what’s going to get them sued.” In July, Choudhury won a copyright infringement suit against the owners of a Southern California yoga studio. Under the settlement, the operators agreed to pay Choudhury an undisclosed sum and never again teach Bikram-style yoga. Choudhury said he has copyrighted the sequence, not the postures. He arranged the poses in a certain way, matched each pose to a precise dialogue used by the instructor and set the 90 minutes of exercises in a mirrored, carpeted room heated like a sauna. That, he says, is his intellectual property. For the full article, click on “source” above.

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