Fitness and Wellness IP Checklist: Format and Sequence Documentation, Instructor and Trainer Terms, Music and Streaming Licences, Studio Trade Dress, and Certification Programmes

By Casey Scott McKay · 2025-01-10

A ten-phase working checklist for studios, format owners, trainers, wellness brands, and content platforms. Phases one and two run the inventory and the naming and clearance programme. Phases three and four cover copyright registration and studio trade dress. Phases five and six fix the instructor terms and the music position, which between them account for most of the sector's value and most of its exposure. Phases seven through ten cover certification, growth structure and franchise analysis, content distribution, and enforcement readiness. Each phase closes with a gate.

IP and Technology > Copyright | Checklist | Published 10 January 2025 - Updated 28 June 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us

How to use this checklist

Start from the position that the format is not protectable and that six other things are: the name, the premises, the materials, the recordings, the credential, and the equipment. Every phase below builds one of those six.

The order matters. Phases five and six — instructor terms and music — are where the sector's value is created and destroyed, and a client with limited budget should do those two and nothing else. Phases one, two, and three are cheap and should be done anyway. Phases four, seven, eight, nine, and ten depend on what the business actually is.

The doctrinal background is You Cannot Copyright a Workout; the operational treatment with worked engagements is Protecting a Fitness or Wellness Business; the cluster is assembled in the Fitness, Wellness, and Class Format IP Toolkit.

Phase 1. Inventory

[ ] Establish what the business sells: classes, memberships, content, certification, licences, or equipment. Most established operators sell three of these without having distinguished them.
[ ] Establish who owns the name and in which jurisdictions and classes it is registered. Expect a founder personally, in one class, in one country.
[ ] List every instructor and their contractual basis: employee, contractor, franchised operator, or nothing signed.
[ ] Identify everything that has been recorded, when, by whom, and where it is distributed.
[ ] Establish what music plays and under what licence, in the studio and on the recordings, separately.
[ ] List every licensee, affiliate, or partner studio, since these are where the franchise exposure sits.
[ ] Identify any teacher training or certification programme and whether it produces a controlled credential or merely a certificate.
[ ] Identify the equipment and whether the business owns, licenses, or merely purchases it.
[ ] Document the format itself, dated, not because it is protectable but because the record answers a competitor who claims the client copied them.
[ ] [Gate] The inventory is written, dated, and owned by a named person.

Phase 2. Naming and clearance

[ ] Clear before launch, across fitness and wellness instruction, content, apparel and equipment, and educational and certification services.
[ ] Avoid descriptive names, which attract refusals, acquire distinctiveness slowly in a crowded field, and cannot be policed against competitors using ordinary language.
[ ] Test for failure to function, since a term that names a category of class rather than a source will not register.
[ ] File across all four specifications, because successful formats enter all four and later filings meet intervening rights.
[ ] File in the markets the format will reach, remembering that instructor migration and content distribution internationalise a format faster than a physical footprint does. See the International Trademark Toolkit.
[ ] Secure domains, handles, and app listings at the same time.
[ ] Hold the marks in the operating company, not the founder, and record any transfer that has already happened.
[ ] Set a watching service and a renewal docket. See the Trademark Portfolio Management Toolkit.
[ ] [Gate] The name is cleared, filed in four specifications, owned by the right entity, and docketed.

Phase 3. Copyright registration

[ ] Register manuals, curricula, and cue sheets as literary works, within three months of publication to preserve statutory damages and fees under 17 U.S.C. § 412.
[ ] Note the preconditions: registration before suit under 17 U.S.C. § 411, completed rather than merely filed, following Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com.
[ ] Batch-register recorded classes quarterly as audiovisual works under 17 U.S.C. § 102(a). This is the sector's most valuable neglected programme.
[ ] Register photography, illustration, and graphic assets, which are cheap to file and frequently copied.
[ ] Attempt choreographic registration only where the expression is genuine — a dance format with specific movement to specific music. A refusal is a document a competitor will produce.
[ ] Do not file on the exercise sequence, which 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) excludes as a system and which Bikram's Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC confirms, on the principle of Baker v. Selden.
[ ] Test any compilation claim against Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co., which requires original selection and arrangement rather than mere effort.
[ ] Record the registrations with dates and numbers in a register somebody maintains.
[ ] [Gate] Everything registrable has been registered or consciously declined, and the batch calendar exists.

Phase 4. Studio trade dress

[ ] Identify the elements: layout, lighting, equipment arrangement, colour, signage, materials, and sensory environment.
[ ] Document with dated photographs, drawings, and a written specification, refreshed whenever the build-out standard changes.
[ ] Screen for functionality first, since TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. and Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. exclude features essential to use or purpose. A room arranged the only sensible way is functional.
[ ] Assess distinctiveness, noting that Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. permits inherently distinctive premises trade dress without secondary meaning while Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros. requires it for product design, and that a studio interior sits between the two.
[ ] Build secondary meaning evidence: consistent build-out, advertising featuring the environment, press coverage, and survey evidence where budget allows.
[ ] Enforce selectively under 15 U.S.C. § 1125, since unenforced trade dress erodes. See Trade Dress and the Functionality Doctrine and Protecting Trade Dress.
[ ] [Gate] The protected elements are specified in a dated document and the functional ones are excluded from it.

Phase 5. Instructor and trainer terms

[ ] Determine the employment classification for each instructor against the agency factors in Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid, recognising that fitness instructors sit in the ambiguous middle and that the answer determines whether 17 U.S.C. § 201 vests copyright in the business or the individual.
[ ] Do not rely on work-for-hire alone for contractors. The enumerated categories in 17 U.S.C. § 101 are arguable for a recorded class rather than certain.
[ ] Take an express assignment satisfying 17 U.S.C. § 204 — signed, covering all recorded output, with a work-for-hire recital and an assignment in the alternative.
[ ] Take a personality rights grant covering name, image, likeness, and voice in and in connection with the recordings, for a defined term and territory, surviving termination of the teaching relationship.
[ ] Decide the removal position in advance, so that a former instructor's request is answered by a contract rather than by a negotiation under pressure.
[ ] Licence the training materials rather than transferring them, with a return obligation on exit.
[ ] Make certification term-limited, conditional, and revocable, with non-use obligations after revocation.
[ ] Scope confidentiality honestly. A teacher training delivered to thirty people who will teach elsewhere is not confidential, and asserting otherwise undermines the clauses that are enforceable.
[ ] Draft covenants realistically, preferring a short client non-solicitation to a non-compete, and confirming enforceability in the relevant jurisdiction and at the relevant wage level. See Where an Employee Can Go.
[ ] Carve out the instructor's pre-existing material, or the assignment will sweep in sequences and cues they brought with them and the agreement will be resisted.
[ ] Chase historic instructors whose recordings remain in the library, prioritising the highest-value catalogues while they are still contactable. See Who Owns the Work.
[ ] [Gate] Every recording in the library is covered by a signed assignment and a surviving personality grant, or is flagged as not.

Phase 6. Music

[ ] Separate the two problems: music played in the studio, and music embedded in recordings. They have different licences and different remedies.
[ ] Obtain performing rights licences from every organisation whose repertoire is played — the catalogues are separate and so are the licences — because public performance under 17 U.S.C. § 106 is what a class involves.
[ ] Do not rely on 17 U.S.C. § 110, which exempts a single home-type receiving apparatus within premises size limits and does not cover a professional sound system playing a curated playlist.
[ ] Stop consumer subscription use immediately. Personal streaming accounts exclude commercial use expressly, and this is the sector's default and unlawful arrangement.
[ ] Issue a one-page music policy naming the permitted sources and prohibiting everything else, distributed to every instructor with the alternative provided in the same communication.
[ ] Procure a cleared source: a production library licensed for the specific uses, a purpose-built fitness music service with commercial and synchronisation terms, or commissioned original music with a full buy-out.
[ ] Obtain synchronisation and master use licences for any recording containing commercial music, recognising there is no blanket equivalent and each is negotiated individually.
[ ] Size the legacy exposure and decide on it: remediate, re-record, remove, or accept and reserve. An unquantified liability is worse than a quantified one.
[ ] Anticipate platform takedowns under 17 U.S.C. § 512, which arrive after the library is built and are enforced by parties with no interest in defending it.
[ ] Keep the licence file, because it is what a platform, an acquirer, or a rights holder will ask for. See Two Copyrights, One Song and the Music Clearance Checklist.
[ ] [Gate] Every note of music played or recorded has a named licence and a document behind it.

Phase 7. Certification

[ ] Choose the instrument. A certification mark under 15 U.S.C. § 1054, defined at 15 U.S.C. § 1127, or a service mark licensed to certified instructors. The first bars the owner from using the mark on its own services; choose accordingly.
[ ] Write a testable standard: training hours, assessed competencies, practical evaluation, continuing education, and a renewal cycle.
[ ] Publish a register of currently certified instructors, which is what makes the credential meaningful and revocation effective.
[ ] Exercise revocation. A scheme that has never revoked anyone is evidence that the standard is not controlled — a cancellation ground for a certification mark and an abandonment risk under 15 U.S.C. § 1127 for a licensed mark.
[ ] Do not refuse certification discriminatorily to anyone meeting the standard.
[ ] Do not use a certification mark on the owner's own services.
[ ] Police unauthorised claims of certification, which is the enforcement action most likely to matter and most likely to succeed. See Certification and Collective Marks and the Certification and Collective Mark Application Checklist.
[ ] [Gate] The credential means something specific, is published, and has been withdrawn from somebody.

Phase 8. Growth structure and the franchise analysis

[ ] Run the three-element test on every licensing arrangement: a trademark licence, significant control over or assistance with the operating method, and a required payment. All three means a franchise.
[ ] If it is a franchise, comply. 16 C.F.R. Part 436 requires a disclosure document, audited financials, and a disclosure period, and the registration states require filings.
[ ] Do not assume the label controls. Calling it a licence, a partnership, an affiliation, or a studio programme does not change the analysis, and the licensee remedies — including rescission in some jurisdictions — are worse than the compliance cost.
[ ] Review the alternatives honestly: comply prospectively; restructure by removing the prescribed system, which usually removes what the licensee is paying for; or unwind. See When a Trademark License Becomes a Franchise, Selling the System, Operating a Franchise System, and the Franchise System IP Checklist.
[ ] Exercise quality control over any licensed mark, since an uncontrolled licence risks abandonment under 15 U.S.C. § 1127, and assign the inspection to a named person with time allocated.
[ ] Where the structure is equipment-led, file utility applications under 35 U.S.C. § 101 and design applications under 35 U.S.C. § 171 before any trade show appearance, because 35 U.S.C. § 102 bars follow publication. See Three Ways to Own a Shape.
[ ] Record the structure decision in a memorandum, so the compliance obligations attach to a stated choice rather than to an accident.
[ ] [Gate] Somebody can say, in one sentence, which structure the business is in and what regulation follows.

Phase 9. Content distribution

[ ] Read the platform agreement as a licence, since it governs the sector's largest distribution channel and carries content rules, takedown practice, and commercial terms.
[ ] Confirm the business can meet the platform warranties on rights ownership and music clearance, which requires Phases 5 and 6 to be complete.
[ ] Establish the takedown response process, including who receives notices and who is authorised to counter-notify.
[ ] Control geographic scope, since content distributed internationally engages foreign rights positions the domestic licences do not cover.
[ ] Address user-generated content where members post class footage, which is both a marketing benefit and an unlicensed distribution of the business's own works with the business's own music problem in it.
[ ] Record the distribution map: which content, on which platforms, under what terms, and for how long.
[ ] [Gate] Every distribution channel has a named agreement and a named person responsible for it.

Phase 10. Enforcement readiness

[ ] Know what a competitor may lawfully do, so that demands are aimed at the winnable points: name use, materials copying, video copying, and false certification claims — not at the sequence.
[ ] Keep the manual and curriculum registrations current, since these support the most commonly winnable claim.
[ ] Preserve the client list as confidential if a trade secret claim under 18 U.S.C. § 1836 is to be available, applying the reasonable measures required by 18 U.S.C. § 1839.
[ ] Monitor for false certification claims, which are both the most common misuse and the easiest to stop.
[ ] Monitor marketplaces and platforms for copied video content, which is straightforward takedown work.
[ ] Decide the response posture for instructor departures in advance, since these are frequent and the reactive response is usually disproportionate.
[ ] Keep the dated format documentation, which is defensive rather than offensive but answers a copying allegation from the other direction.
[ ] [Gate] The client knows which three claims it would actually bring, and has the documents for each.

Sector variants

[ ] Yoga and pilates. Bikram applies directly, and assertions of ownership over traditional practice carry reputational as well as legal risk.
[ ] Personal training and coaching. The assets are the brand, the client relationships, the programme templates as literary works, and any assessment methodology treated as a genuine secret.
[ ] Nutrition and meal programmes. Structurally identical to the recipe problem; see You Cannot Own a Recipe and Protecting a Food, Beverage, or Restaurant Brand.
[ ] Apps and wearables. Software and data businesses; health data changes the regulatory overlay materially.
[ ] Recovery modalities. Equipment businesses with a claims problem, since health benefit assertions are advertising and challengeable under 15 U.S.C. § 1125.
[ ] Retreats and events. Live production questions; see The Show Itself and the Live Performance Checklist.
[ ] Influencer-led brands. The personality rights position is the whole asset. See Endorsements, Influencers, and the Law of Paid Praise and Building an Influencer and Endorsement Compliance Program.
[ ] Streaming-first businesses. Closer to a media company than a studio; see Playing for an Audience.

The first hundred days

[ ] Days one to fifteen — Phase 1 plus the franchise screen. Produce a one-page risk summary with three ranked items.
[ ] Days fifteen to thirty — Phase 6. Stop the music bleeding. Fastest large risk reduction available.
[ ] Days thirty to sixty — Phase 5. Draft and roll out the instructor agreement; chase the historic catalogues that matter.
[ ] Days sixty to ninety — Phases 2 and 3. Trademark filings across four specifications; copyright registrations for manuals and the first content batch.
[ ] Days ninety to one hundred — Phase 8. Structure decision and the compliance that follows.
[ ] [Gate] At one hundred days the business owns its name, owns its content, has a lawful music position, has enforceable instructor terms, and knows its regulatory regime.

The annual review

[ ] Reconcile the instructor roster against signed agreements, since new instructors teach before paperwork catches up and the recordings from that window are the unassigned ones.
[ ] Re-check the music position for new instructors, new locations, and any new channel.
[ ] Update the trademark schedule against the current offering, which will have expanded since the last filings.
[ ] Re-run the franchise screen on any arrangement signed during the year.
[ ] Refresh the trade dress specification and photographs if the build-out standard has changed.
[ ] Batch-file the year's content registrations if the quarterly calendar has slipped.
[ ] Audit the certification register for lapsed certifications still being claimed.
[ ] Confirm the marks are still held by the operating company after any reorganisation.
[ ] [Gate] Nothing in the file is more than twelve months old and unverified.

The seven documents

[ ] The instructor agreement — assignment with work-for-hire in the alternative, personality grant surviving termination, materials licence with return obligation, certification terms, honest confidentiality, defensible non-solicitation, and a carve-out for pre-existing material.
[ ] The certification standard and register — assessment criteria, renewal cycle, revocation grounds, published list.
[ ] The music policy — one page, permitted sources named, everything else prohibited, distributed to every instructor.
[ ] The trademark schedule — marks, classes, jurisdictions, renewal dates, gaps marked as decisions.
[ ] The copyright register — registered works with dates and numbers, plus the batch filing calendar.
[ ] The trade dress specification — dated photographs and a written description of the protected elements.
[ ] The structure memorandum — franchising, certifying, publishing, or manufacturing, and the compliance that follows.
[ ] [Gate] All seven exist, are current, and are held somewhere a successor could find them.

Failures this checklist prevents

[ ] The content library that cannot be sold because contractors signed nothing. Phase 5.
[ ] The whole catalogue taken down over music. Phase 6.
[ ] The rebrand after four years because the name was never cleared. Phase 2.
[ ] The rescission claim from twelve licensees who were franchisees all along. Phase 8.
[ ] The mark that cannot be enforced because it was licensed without quality control. Phases 7 and 8.
[ ] The trade dress claim that fails on functionality because nobody separated identity from necessity. Phase 4.
[ ] The instructor who keeps teaching under the format name because the mark was never registered. Phase 2.
[ ] The former instructor who demands their classes be removed and has a contractual argument because the grant was silent. Phase 5.
[ ] The refused choreographic registration produced by a competitor as evidence that the format is unprotected. Phase 3.

Party-specific short forms

If you act for a single-studio operator

[ ] Phases 1, 2, 5, 6. Nothing else, unless the business records content or licenses its name.
[ ] Treat Phase 6 as urgent even for a studio that records nothing, because the live performance licences are required and cheap and their absence is the most likely enforcement contact the business will receive.
[ ] Do the instructor agreement even with three instructors, because it is a one-page document and its absence is what makes the business unsaleable later.
[ ] Skip Phase 4 unless there is a second location planned. Trade dress protection for a single site is rarely worth the documentation cost.

If you act for a multi-site or franchising operator

[ ] All ten phases, with Phase 8 first because the exposure is retrospective and compounds with each new relationship.
[ ] Phase 4 becomes worthwhile at the point where a consistent build-out standard exists across sites.
[ ] Phase 7 becomes valuable because a network needs a mechanism for instructor quality that does not depend on direct employment.
[ ] Build the quality inspection into an operations role, since an uninspected licence is an abandonment risk and a franchisor that does not enforce standards has a system in name only.

If you act for a content-first business

[ ] Phases 3, 5, 6, 9 are the whole business, and Phases 1 and 2 support them.
[ ] Treat the batch registration calendar as an operating process, not a legal task, and put it in someone's monthly cycle.
[ ] Do not let a single unassigned catalogue accumulate. The cost of chasing an assignment rises steeply once the instructor has left.
[ ] Read the platform agreement before scale, not after, since migrating a library between platforms is far harder than choosing correctly at the outset.

If you act for an individual instructor or trainer

[ ] Negotiate the personality grant's term and scope, since a perpetual worldwide grant means the studio may exploit your image indefinitely after you leave.
[ ] Seek credit and attribution in recorded content, which builds the personal brand you will need next.
[ ] Carve out your pre-existing sequences, cues, and programme design, or the assignment will sweep them in.
[ ] Ask for a removal right on defined grounds, at minimum for reputational reasons.
[ ] Check whether the covenant is enforceable at all in your jurisdiction and at your wage level before treating it as a constraint.
[ ] Confirm certification portability, so a credential earned is not forfeited on departure.

Three worked applications

The instructor departure

An established studio's most popular instructor resigns and opens a competing studio nearby, teaching a recognisably similar class.

[ ] State the limit first. The sequence is a system under 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) and the class cannot be stopped. Establishing this early prevents the client spending money discovering it.
[ ] Identify the winnable points: use of the format name, any claim of continuing certification, retention or use of the training manual, and copying of recorded content.
[ ] Assess the client list against the reasonable measures standard in 18 U.S.C. § 1839. A shared spreadsheet everyone could open is not a secret.
[ ] Review the covenant without optimism, then set it aside if it is unenforceable rather than asserting it and losing credibility.
[ ] Run Phases 2, 5, and 7 immediately afterwards, because the departure is the prompt and the programme is the value.

The sale process

A boutique chain with a large recorded library enters diligence.

[ ] Run Phase 5 in reverse: which recordings have signed assignments, which do not, and which of the unassigned catalogues are commercially material.
[ ] Run Phase 6 in reverse: quantify the unlicensed music exposure across the library rather than leaving the buyer to discover it.
[ ] Check the personality grants for survival after termination, since a former instructor with no surviving grant is a removal request waiting to happen.
[ ] File the missing trademark applications immediately, because pending applications are better than nothing in a data room.
[ ] Present the remediation plan with the disclosure, and negotiate escrow release against its milestones rather than against time.

The licensing programme

A format owner is preparing to license its brand and method to independent operators for the first time.

[ ] Run Phase 8 before the first agreement, not after the twelfth.
[ ] Assume the arrangement is a franchise unless the analysis shows otherwise, and build the disclosure document into the launch timetable.
[ ] Design the quality control mechanism at the same time, because 15 U.S.C. § 1127 makes an uninspected licence an abandonment risk and because the standard is what the licensee is buying.
[ ] Decide between franchising and certification deliberately. Certification scales internationally without a physical footprint and carries a lighter regulatory burden, but gives less control over the operator's business.
[ ] Complete Phases 2, 3, 5, and 6 first, since a licensing programme built on unregistered marks, unassigned content, and unlicensed music exports every one of those problems to twelve new locations.

What a competitor may lawfully do

Worth setting out as a checklist item in its own right, because it bounds every dispute and clients rarely have it.

[ ] Teach the same sequence. Permitted. It is a system.
[ ] Teach it at the same intensity, in the same order, over the same duration, in the same conditions. Permitted. All part of the system.
[ ] Describe the class in ordinary descriptive words, including words that describe what participants do. Permitted.
[ ] State truthfully that its instructors trained at your studio. Generally permitted as nominative use; claiming a certification they do not hold is not.
[ ] Use the format name. Not permitted. That is the trademark.
[ ] Copy the manual, curriculum, or cue sheets. Not permitted. Literary works.
[ ] Copy the recorded classes. Not permitted. Audiovisual works.
[ ] Replicate the studio's distinctive non-functional look closely enough to confuse. Not permitted, though the hardest of the claims to prove.
[ ] Hire your instructors. Permitted, subject to whatever covenant is enforceable — which at this sector's wage levels is frequently not much.
[ ] Take a client list that was never treated as confidential. Practically unstoppable, which is why Phase 10's reasonable measures matter.
[ ] [Gate] The client has seen this list and understands which four items are worth a demand letter.

A note on proportion

[ ] Scale the programme to the business. A single studio with three instructors and no recordings needs Phases 1, 2, 5, and 6, and nothing else.
[ ] Never scale down Phase 6. The music exposure is not proportional to the size of the operation; it is proportional to how much music is played, and every studio plays music.
[ ] Never scale down the assignment in Phase 5. It is one page, it is free, and its absence is the single most common reason a fitness business is worth less at exit than its revenue suggests.
[ ] Treat Phases 4, 7, 8, and 9 as conditional on the business actually having multiple sites, a credential programme, licensees, or a distribution channel.
[ ] [Gate] Client and adviser have agreed in writing which phases are in scope and why the others are not.

Evidence habits worth building

[ ] Date the format documentation and keep it. Unprotectable does not mean useless: the dated record answers a competitor who claims the client copied them, and it costs nothing to maintain.
[ ] Keep the class schedule and attendance history. In a secondary meaning argument, in a valuation, and in any dispute about when a format was in use, this is the underlying evidence — and businesses in this sector migrate booking systems every few years and lose it.
[ ] Photograph each build-out on completion, dated, before the first class. Retrofitting trade dress evidence is not possible.
[ ] Keep the instructor roster with start and end dates, so that a recording can be matched to a person and a contract without archaeology.
[ ] Keep the music procurement records, including the dates on which policies changed, since the exposure is period-specific and the boundary matters.
[ ] Keep the certification register history, including revocations, because control of the standard is proved by what was withdrawn rather than by what was granted.
[ ] [Gate] Six records exist, are maintained by a named person, and would survive a change of booking system.

What good looks like

[ ] The client can name the owner of every recording and point to the document.
[ ] Every note of music has a licence and the licence file is current.
[ ] The name is registered in four specifications in every market the business operates in.
[ ] The credential means something specific and has been withdrawn from at least one person.
[ ] Somebody can state in one sentence whether the business is franchising, certifying, publishing, or manufacturing.
[ ] The client knows exactly what a departing instructor may and may not do, and does not expect the sequence to be protected.

Six statements. A business that can make all six has converted an unprotectable method into a defensible enterprise, which is the entire object of this checklist.

Four questions to open every file with

[ ] Who owns the name, and where is it registered? Phase 2.
[ ] Who signed what, and does it cover the recordings? Phase 5.
[ ] What music plays, and under whose licence? Phase 6.
[ ] Are you charging anyone to use your name and your method? Phase 8.

Four questions, answerable in a single meeting. Between them they cover the failures that account for almost every serious problem in this sector, and the answers scope the entire engagement.

[ ] And a fifth, for the client who insists the format is the asset: what would actually change about your business tomorrow if a competitor across town taught the identical class? The honest answer is usually "very little", and it is the fastest route to a productive conversation about the six things that would change everything if you lost them.

[ ] [Gate] The client has answered all five and the engagement scope reflects the answers rather than the opening question.

Key Authorities at a Glance

The spine is short. 17 U.S.C. § 102(a) protects choreographic and audiovisual works; 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) excludes procedures and systems; Bikram's Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC places a health-directed sequence on the excluded side; and the principle is Baker v. Selden, with the originality floor at Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co..

Ownership runs through 17 U.S.C. § 101, § 201, § 204, and Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid; registration through 17 U.S.C. § 411, § 412, and Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com; music through 17 U.S.C. § 106, § 110, and § 512.

Brand and premises run through 15 U.S.C. § 1125, Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc., Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros., TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc., Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co., 15 U.S.C. § 1127, and 15 U.S.C. § 1054. Structure runs through 16 C.F.R. Part 436 and, for equipment, 35 U.S.C. § 101, § 102, § 103, and § 171.

| Authority | Phase | | --- | --- | | 17 U.S.C. § 102(a) | 3 — registrable works | | 17 U.S.C. § 102(b) | 3 — why the sequence is excluded | | Bikram's Yoga College of India, L.P. v. Evolation Yoga, LLC | 3 — the controlling authority | | Baker v. Selden | 3 — description versus system | | Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Telephone Service Co. | 3 — compilation originality | | 17 U.S.C. § 411 | 3 — registration before suit | | 17 U.S.C. § 412 | 3 — timely registration | | Fourth Estate Public Benefit Corp. v. Wall-Street.com | 3 — completion of registration | | TrafFix Devices, Inc. v. Marketing Displays, Inc. | 4 — functionality | | Qualitex Co. v. Jacobson Products Co. | 4 — functionality and source identification | | Two Pesos, Inc. v. Taco Cabana, Inc. | 4 — inherently distinctive premises | | Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Samara Bros. | 4 — secondary meaning for design | | 15 U.S.C. § 1125 | 4, 10 — trade dress and health claims | | 17 U.S.C. § 101 | 5 — work made for hire categories | | 17 U.S.C. § 201 | 5 — initial ownership | | 17 U.S.C. § 204 | 5 — signed writing for transfers | | Community for Creative Non-Violence v. Reid | 5 — employee or contractor | | 17 U.S.C. § 106 | 6 — public performance | | 17 U.S.C. § 110 | 6 — the inapplicable exemption | | 17 U.S.C. § 512 | 6, 9 — platform takedowns | | 15 U.S.C. § 1054 | 7 — certification mark registration | | 15 U.S.C. § 1127 | 7, 8 — control obligations and abandonment | | 16 C.F.R. Part 436 | 8 — franchise disclosure | | 35 U.S.C. § 101 | 8 — patentable equipment | | 35 U.S.C. § 102 | 8 — trade show publication bars | | 35 U.S.C. § 103 | 8 — obviousness of sequences | | 35 U.S.C. § 171 | 8 — equipment appearance | | 18 U.S.C. § 1836 | 10 — client lists and methodology | | 18 U.S.C. § 1839 | 10 — reasonable measures |

Further reading is collected at fitness format copyright, instructor work made for hire, music licence fitness class, studio trade dress, and fitness franchise disclosure.