Bikram Bucks: The local yoga community holds its breath over threatened lawsuits.
by Amy L. Webb
City Beat
March 11-17, 2004

In Hindi, "yoga" means "to unite." But one year ago this month, a world-renowned guru clashed with instructors and students effectively ripping apart the worldwide -- and Philadelphia -- yoga community forever.

It all started with a small lawsuit.

In April 2002, Bikram Choudhury unleashed -- and won -- an intellectual property suit against the owners of a small Costa Mesa, Calif., yoga studio and threatened to sue anyone who offered a Bikram yoga class without his supervision. One year later, Choudhury got what many thought was the impossible: federal copyright registration for the sequence of ancient poses and breathing exercises used in Bikram.

The effects of the new trademark and copyright law are still being felt in Philadelphia.

Dozens of Philly yoga studios that offered some form of "Bikram" classes with reputable teachers have either been forced to close or change their businesses. Today there is only one studio left in the city offering certified classes: Bikram Yoga of Philadelphia located at 1520 Sansom St.

Even so, demand for Bikram has not decreased. Studios such as Spa Elysium and Gorilla Yoga still offer Bikram yoga, though they are not listed in the official Choudhury-approved directory.

"It’s not like yoga teachers are making a lot of money to start out with," says one lawsuit-fearing Center City yoga instructor who would only speak on the condition of anonymity. "If you train with a teacher and get certified in Iyengar [yoga], you don’t have to pay a licensing fee to the great guru of Iyengar or anything. It’s absurd. Bikram is all I ever did. I was trained properly, I was certified by my teacher and I basically had to change my business because I’m afraid of being sued by Bikram, who’s out there on a warpath."

The instructor says it can cost between $100,000 and $200,000 to start a new yoga studio and build a student base. Now that studios must revamp their schedules and find new teachers, owners stand to lose their investments and clientele.

In 1973, the Calcutta-born Choudhury started an American-based branch of his yoga practice, now called the Yoga College of India or simply "Bikram." It involves 26 postures and two breathing exercises done in a room heated to 105 degrees. Teachers often stand on podiums wearing the same kind of microphones popular in step aerobics classes. The 90-minute sequence is practiced slowly, but it requires lower-body strength and endurance.

While yoga instructors all say that a dedicated practice can lead to a lean, toned body, few would argue that yoga will fix heart disease or diabetes. But Choudhury claims that his Bikram practice will cure hepatitis C and help alleviate kidney cancer, though there have been no scientific studies proving that Choudhury’s yoga practice can cure serious ailments.

Not everyone agrees with Choudhury’s methods, either.

"You have to be weary of someone saying that yoga will cure this or that," says Steve Sonnefeld, instructor at the YogaLife Institute on the Main Line. "A yoga-inspired lifestyle will make you healthier, it will make you feel better. And to copyright a practice Ö I don’t think that anyone can copyright an asana [pose]. The concepts, theories and postures all come from one place, and that’s India thousands of years ago. How can you stake your claim on something like that?"

Neither Choudhury nor any instructors at his L.A.-based Yoga College of India would return calls for this story, but Choudhury did tell Business 2.0 magazine that his practice was "the only yoga" because "I have balls like atom bombs, two of them, 100 megatons each. Nobody fucks with me."

The Yoga Research and Information Center estimates that nearly 18 million Americans now practice yoga, and about 7 percent are students of Bikram. Worldwide, Choudhury has opened 720 schools in 220 countries and 50 states. (It’s difficult to estimate the number of yoga classes in Philadelphia because teachers work both in studios and privately in homes and offices.)

All of those schools opened with the direct supervision of Choudhury, and the teachers working in the schools had to be certified by Choudhury himself -- to the tune of $5,000.

In other yoga disciplines, instructors often train students to become teachers, who then go on to open their own studios. So it went with Bikram students, who studied for several years and then offered Bikram classes in gyms, studios and health centers in Philadelphia and in other cities around the world. This was often done using the Bikram name, but without paying any licensing, trademark or franchise fees.

Choudhury’s team of lawyers, using the copyright and legal precedent they won last year, say that they can now collect $150,000 per infringement of the new Bikram law. So if a teacher plays music during a class, which isn’t allowed by Choudhury, and if the teacher modifies the sequence, that would mean $300,000 in fines for two infringements. There are no lawsuits pending in Philadelphia but rumors among Philadelphia yoga teachers suggest that local studios have received cease-and-desist letters.

Choudhury may argue that the fines are high to protect his intellectual property, but the sale of Bikram books, videos, seminars and teacher trainings has helped him build a $7 million fortune which includes a fleet of Bentleys and Rolls-Royces. Ironically, Choudhury’s business practice rubs against the standard yoga practices of generosity and modesty.

"Living a yoga lifestyle means greedlessness, simplicity, humility, seeing your connectedness to others," Sonnefeld says. "This is not an ego-driven activity. Bikram has decided to copyright his brand and it’s made him a very wealthy man."

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