Yesterday, the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit in California ruled in the favor of Evolation Yoga, which Choudhury filed a lawsuit against back in 2011.
Choudhury’s lawsuit claimed that Mark Drost and Zefea Samson, who are the founders of Evolation, set up a carbon-copy yoga system that offered classes infringing on his copyrighted sequences of yoga poses.
The court ruled that the yoga poses and breathing exercises Choudhury developed were not entitled to copyright protection. The reason why is because it was an idea or system that was designed to improve health and not an expression of an idea.
As the court pointed out, the practice of yoga and the philosophy of yoga dates back thousands of years ago. The court also noted that yoga derived from ancient Hindu scriptures. It added that the Bikram Yoga Sequence was not a proper subject of copyright protection.
The yoga world hailed the ruling. The attorney that represented the founders of Evolation that was sued called the victory a major victory for yoga studios and practitioners everywhere.
