According to case law and U.S Copyright Office, YOGA SEQUENCE CANNOT BE COPYRIGHTED. – Yoga poses or sequences cannot be copyrighted because compilation of exercises itself is not construed as literary, musical, dramatic, pantomimes or choreographic, pictorial, graphic, structural, motion pictures, sound recordings, or architectural work under 17 U.S.C §102 (a) (categories of copyrightable original works of authorship). Only the selection, coordination and arrangement of photographs, drawings, or writings that depict the exercises may be entitled to copyright protection but not a compilation of physical exercises itself. Yoga sequence is rather construed as a functional system, procedure or process under 17 U.S.C §102 (b) .
17 U.S.C. §102
(a) Copyright protection subsists, … in original works of authorship fixed in any tangible medium of expression, now known or later developed, from which they can be perceived, reproduced, or otherwise communicated, either directly or with the aid of a machine or device. Works of authorship include the following categories: (1) literaryworks; (2) musical works, including any accompanying words; (3) dramatic works, including any accompanying music; (4) pantomimes and choreographic works; (5) pictorial, graphic, and sculptural works; (6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works; (7) sound recordings; and (8) architectural works.
(b) [Copyright protection for an original work of authorship does not] extend to any idea, procedure, process,system, method of operation, concept, principle, or discovery, regardless of the form in which it is described, explained, illustrated, or embodied in such work.
US Copyright Office – Statement of Policy in the Federal Register:
- “A selection, coordination, or arrangement of exercise movements, such as a compilation of yoga poses, may not be copyrighted where the particular movements and the order in which they are to be performed allegedly result in improvements in one’s health or physical or mental condition because it can be construed as functional system or process (which is exempt from copyright protection under 17 U.S.C. §102 above). (See, e.g., open Source Yoga Unity v. Choudhury, 2005 WL 756558, *4, 74 U.S.P.Q.2d 1434 (N.D. Cal. 2005)“
- “Compilation of photographs of the poses or video of yoga practice routine may be copyrighted (the movement, scenery, music and etc. as a whole) but not the exercise or the movement itself.“
The Bikram Case
Bikram’s Yoga Coll. of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC, 2012 WL 6548505 (C.D. Cal. Dec. 14, 2012)– Yogi Bikram Choudhury developed the Bikram style of hot yoga and used brand name “Bikram” since 1971. Choudhury has multiple copyright registrations for his yoga instructional videos and materials. Choudhury sued Evolation Yoga, LLC alleging copyright infringement of the Bikram sequence.
In Bikram’s case, the Central District of California held:
1) Only Choudhury’s expression of the facts and ideas contained within, and not the facts and ideas themselves are protected by copyright as literary and audiovisual works.
2) A compilation of exercises or yoga poses itself does not fall into any of the copyrightable categories under 17 U.S.C. §102(a) and is not copyrightable under s. 102(b) because it is a system or procedure.
Law in Style. 