Yoga Teachers Steamed By Bling-Bling Guru's Copyright
File under: Gurus Clockin' Dollars
Bikram Choudhury, the "inventor" of Bikram Yoga, is defending his copyrighted sequence of yoga exercises against a lawsuit brought by a coalition of independent yoga teachers.Quite famous for his bling-bling lifestyle, Bikram claims that his particular sequence of yoga postures, all of which are thousands of years old, can "lower blood pressure and cholesterol, cure arthritis, ... heal reproductive and spinal problems," wash your car and do your taxes, too!
We've heard that if he successfully defends his copyright, his next move will be to patent breathing, eating and excretion.
posted by guruphiliac @ 6:31 PM
4 Comments:
this is old news. give me something new!
It's my understanding that you can't copyright a mechanism, a way of doing things. You can patent a way of doing things, but you can't copyright it.
Furthermore, the mechanism, the 'engine', has to be unique. Something new. If Mr. Bling-Bling's engine is essentially a re-working of earlier engines, then it can't be patented.
In other words, if it's been done before, no patent. And from what his critics are saying, not only is it nothing new, it's older than Methuselah the day before his death.
This showed up in yesterday's LA Times, hence its appearance on the blog. But you are right, I've been hearing about this for a while now too.
If you want something new, send me something to write about. I work full time and will probably get fired for writing this thing on the company dime, so I can't spend all day uncovering new items.
And Alan, yes I agree. However, the guy has gots lots of money, so he can pay for fancy lawyers to tie this thing up in court. I hope he loses, but I'm not sure that justice wins out over cash as much as we'd like it to.
OTOH, there are times when no amount of money can keep a case going. Such as when the suit has no intrinsic merit.
The best would be a summary dismissal and the finding Mr. Bling-Bling is a vexatious litigant.
A counter-suit for violating copyright law may also be called for.
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