Our weekly SoCal IP Institute meeting on Monday, October 26, 2015, will be a discussion of the following cases:

Halo Electronics, Inc. v. Pulse Electronics, Inc. (Fed. Cir. October 22, 2014) (available here).  The Supreme Court has agreed to review this Federal Circuit decision, along with the decision in Stryker Corp. v. Zimmer, regarding the standard for enhancing damages for willful infringement.

Bikram’s Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC, (9th Cir. October 8, 2015) (available here).  Hot yoga guru Bikram Choudhury is not entitled to copyright protection for his 26-position exercise sequence done in a heated room.  Two of Bikram’s former students opened a studio teaching techniques they learned from him in 2009, and he filed suit claiming he owned “graceful flow” yoga.  The Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s grant of partial summary judgment, holding that a sequence of yoga poses and breathing exercised was not entitled to copyright protection.