This story goes back a ways, but because it is one we covered, I want to put the final bow on it. Bikram Choudhury and Greg Gumucio of Yoga to the People, once Bikram’s right-hand man, have settled their lawsuits involving whether Gumucio was infringing on Bikram’s copyright for his yoga poses. ABC News had … Continue reading Bikram, Yoga to the People settle copyright lawsuit
We’ve been following the Bikram — Yoga to the People lawsuit, for two reasons: 1. It seems a fairly central issue to the business of yoga, whether one person can copyright a set of poses as Bikram has done (or, perhaps, tried to do). 2. Bikram’s among the most entertaining figures in yoga. Our past … Continue reading Breaking down whether yoga can be copyrighted
One part of the Bikram-Yoga to the People lawsuit story we posted yesterday that caught my eye had zero to do with the lawsuit, the business of yoga or how many swear words Bikram can use in one newspaper article. It was the tale of Yoga to the People’s Greg Gumucio’s teacher training experience with … Continue reading Why you should do a teacher training — even if you don’t want to teach
You may have noticed that normally we don’t point you in the direction of online pieces that don’t relate closely to the Confluence’s (now) six teachers or to Ashtanga. (Very early on we did cast a wider yoga net, but no more.) We assume you can find items at the big online yoga sites — … Continue reading Two things you really ought to read
While it does appear the U.S. Copyright Office has changed its tune about whether yoga poses can be trademarked, the lawyer for Bikram in his lawsuit against Yoga to the People is saying it doesn’t matter for their debate. Robert Gilchrest points out that the Copyright Office has issued hundreds of copyrights for exercise videos. … Continue reading Bikram lawyer says new copyright ruling ‘meaningless’ to lawsuit
Diving a little deeper into the Yoga to the People vs. Bikram issue, it looks like the key point to Greg Gumucio’s response is a new review by the U.S. Copyright Office that determines yoga and similar exercises can’t be copyrighted as “choreography”. Here’s the key section from Gumucio’s response, which we posted about earlier: … Continue reading Yoga to the People’s response to Bikram hinges on new copyright interpretation
I will let you decide if this is an historic moment for yoga. Greg Gumucio of Yoga to the People a few minutes ago filed his answer to the lawsuit brought against him by Bikram. What it seems to come down to is the difference between a copyright and a patent. “Bikram does not have … Continue reading Here is Yoga to the People’s answer to Bikram
That horse’s mouth reference will make sense in a second. As we noted earlier, Bikram has filed another of his lawsuits charging someone with copying his copyrighted series of poses. It seems that, typically, these suits get settled. This time, it is seeming like Bikram maybe picked on the wrong guy. And that’s strange, since … Continue reading A little more on the Bikram-YTTP lawsuit, from the horse’s mouth
Ladies and gentlemen, let’s get ready to aummmm-ble! We mentioned last week that Bikram had sued New York studio chain Yoga to the People for copyright infringement; it’s something Bikram has done before. Our reaction was to wonder about how Bikram’s officially licensed yoga differs from Guruji’s not officially but still very lineage-driven Ashtanga. Well, … Continue reading Yoga to the People vows to fight Bikram lawsuit
