Having borne the brunt of cheap imitation and copies over the years, designer Rohit Bal has struck back and trademarked his new collection and copyrighted its designs.
On the eve of his big couture outing, he shared his announcement over a home-cooked wazwan while allowing us a sneak preview of the motifs and designs he had patented. He has copyrighted certain design elements and his signature interpretation of motifs like the rooster and the Nandi bull. While many may argue that these motifs are generic and pan-India, what Rohit has done is given his own accent to the rooster and bull — in the sense they have been shaped, imagined, laid out, embroidered or stitched. So his grammar, placement and sensibility cannot be copied anymore, even as an “inspiration.”
In this effort, he consulted FDCI president Sunil Sethi who put him through IPR lawyers. “Though this is Bal’s initiative, many in the fraternity approached me to see if the FDCI could help out in any way. I told them for the first time we would have somebody on the governing body, which means more people could have access to him for plagiarism-related disputes.”
Sethi feels that IPR in India is really complex to get a ruling on easily. “Also many things are generic. For example, take Bal’s Nandi bull motif. You may use the Nandi but not the way Bal has conceived his bull and interpreted it in his embroidery in a certain way. It has taken such a long time to be made. When it comes to the ramp, a motif or design is just a flash and the memory of it is momentary. Now with his copyrighted designs in the public domain, you can see in close-up what you might not understand on the ramp. There is better awareness and signature recall which make it difficult for imitation artists,” he told us.
“Similarly, take the case of Rohit’s rooster. Many might see they have seen the bird on a Portuguese flag. Once I had collaborated with Sabyasachi on carpets that had the rooster motif. Now these you cannot copyright. But it is the way that Rohit has put the motif together in terms of colour combination, design, style, artistry and execution that merits exclusivity. So now if somebody does only a border with exactly this motif and the same gold embroidery, it won’t be easy,” said Sethi.
The FDCI chief also emphasises the need for spending time and effort to get your design in the first place. “First one needs to get his/her own design. If you don’t have one or been inspired, then getting into trademarks and copyrights may be difficult. There is a company called Cos in UK. All the designs are plain and minimal, so a lot of people doing pret in India may get inspired. Recently, everybody went gaga over Rei Kawakubo at the Met gala. You can see things that are very particular to her but which can be easily copied. These are the grey areas that need to be worked on,” Sethi added.
He argues what the designer brings to the table has to be appreciated. “Working with the artists and using their old methods and motifs, they convert them to contemporary fashion. When it comes to couture design, there is so much richness in the art that you can develop colours, patterns and intricacies and they need to be protected,” he said.
While Bal seems to have put a corrective course or rather a plagiarist deterrent in action, Sethi admits monitoring will be a big challenge too. “But at least the first step has been taken,” he adds.
As IPR lawyer Suhrita Majumdar said, “While anything generic isn’t protectable, a new design with specific colour schemes, pattern and the creator’s blueprint can be protected as intellectual property.”
Majumdar, who has filed for design protection for jewellers, has also come across conflicting designs. “Some of them use the term ‘inspired by’ but they are in fact quite identical to the original. Having said this, if more original artistes copyright their designs, this tendency of easy picking will stop. Even if major designers protect their creations, it will go a long way in enforcing protection of creativity.”
However, protection of weavers and artisans is even more difficult. As Majumdar says, “In India, they hardly get into agreements with their employers. Besides, most of them work for everybody rather than exclusively.”
Meanwhile, Bal’s couture show on Monday saw the return of the original ramp hunk Arjun Rampal who became the show-stopper. A homecoming like no other. As for the designer himself, this was his most elaborate tribute to his karigars.