What The 9th Circ. Missed In Yoga Copyright Ruling

Law360, New York (December 11, 2015, 10:16 AM EST) -- On Oct. 8, 2015, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its decision in Bikram's Yoga College v. Evolation Yoga,[1] a case addressing whether a sequence of 26 yoga poses and two breathing exercises described in Bikram Choudhury's book, "Bikram's Beginning Yoga Class,"[2] is entitled to copyright protection. The panel found that under 17 U.S.C. § 102(b), the "Sequence" as described in Choudhury's book is an idea or process and therefore not susceptible to copyright protection as a compilation or choreographic work. Yet, missing from the court's analysis and apparently from the arguments advanced by the appellants' counsel, is whether the sequence is subject to protection as communicative expression, i.e., language....

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