Bikram Choudry claims intellectual property ownership of certain yoga poses

However, OSYU contends that Bikram is attempting to copyright forms that are thousands of years old and should therefore be in the public domain. Thus, the group is using the same open source laws, such as those in the software industry, which state that anything in the public domain can be freely used by anyone.

• It's hard to imagine that yoga, the 5,000-year-old discipline of exercise, diet and meditation, would have anything in common with the modern software industry.
• But a group of loosely affiliated yoga instructors based in California have embraced the philosophy of the open-source software movement in fighting a campaign by a richly successful yoga master to use copyright law to bar competitors from practicing any part of his exercise routines without authorization.
• India-born Bikram Choudhury has gained rock-star status in the clannish world of yoga, which has long been taught by independent local practitioners who train relatively small groups of dedicated yoga aficionados in towns and cities across the country.
• But the yoga community has also grown steadily in the United States, where as many as 16.5 million fitness-conscious people practice the discipline, according to Yoga Journal.
• Based in the always trend-conscious Los Angeles area, Choudhury has accumulated wealth and a large following with his style of yoga training, in which he leads practitioners in 26 yoga positions and breathing exercises in rooms heated to sweltering temperatures.
• The group currently consists of a nine-member board of directors and about 25 other "loosely affiliated" yoga instructors and practitioners, according to the group's lawyer, James Harrison of Sacramento, Calif.
• OSYU in essence is asking the court to rule that Choudhury's copyright claims are unenforceable because they are based on yoga positions and practices that have been in use for literally thousands of years and thus are in the public domain, Harrison said.
• OSYU won the opening round of the litigation in April 2004 when Judge Phyllis Hamilton rejected the motion of Choudhury's attorney that the case should be dismissed because OSYU lacked the legal standing to pursue its lawsuit.