Editing Bikram Yoga (section)

==Copyright Claims==
{{main|Copyright claims on Bikram Yoga}}

Choudhury claimed, starting in 2011, that Bikram Yoga was under [[copyright]] and that it could not be taught or presented by anyone whom he had not authorized. In that year, Choudhury started a lawsuit against [[Yoga to the People]], a competing yoga studio founded by a former student of Choudhury's and with a location near one of the Bikram Yoga studios in New York, and later started another against the Florida-based Evolation Yoga. Choudhury lost at first instance in both cases and appealed the decision, but the Court of Appeal ultimately dismissed his copyright claim over yoga poses in Bikram Yoga.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-yoga-poses-ruling-20151008-story.html |title=Downward dog duplication? Relax, yoga poses can't be copyrighted, court rules |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |last=Dolan |first=Maura |date=9 October 2015 |access-date=2018-10-11}}</ref><ref>{{Cite magazine|url=https://time.com/4067618/bikram-choudhury-yoga-copyright/|title=Court Says Bikram Choudhury Can't Copyright His Yoga Poses|magazine=Time|language=en|access-date=2018-10-11}}</ref>

As a result of that lawsuit, the [[United States Copyright Office]] issued a clarification that yoga postures (''[[asanas]]'') could not be copyrighted in the way claimed by Choudhury, and that Yoga to the People and others could continue to freely teach these exercises.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ52.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ52.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live|title=Copyright Registration of Choreography and Pantomime (Circular 52) |publisher=[[United States Copyright Office]] |date=September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Friedman |first1=Jennifer D'Angelo |title=What the Bikram Copyright Rejection Means for Yoga |url=https://www.yogajournal.com/lifestyle/rejection-bikram-copyright-upheld-means-future-yoga |publisher=[[Yoga Journal]] |date=5 April 2017 |orig-year=16 October 2015}}</ref>