Safir Anand was interviewed by Mid Day for its feature titled “Solapur to LA”. Premised on American pop singer Nick Jonas’ Instagram post in which he is seen wearing a shirt made out of GI-registered ‘Solapur Chadar’, a cotton bed sheet produced in Solapur city of Maharashtra, the editorial has Safir Anand explain how the creative process can toe the thin line between cultural appreciation and misappropriation.
“The fact that the GI protection, in this case, extends to the Solapur chadar as a whole and was misappropriated without any due authorisation in place, could make this a case of infringement regardless of the product being converted and tailored into a shirt,” says Safir.
“…it becomes immaterial that the GI fabric was converted into a shirt since the authorisation to use the protected GI in any manner itself is missing in this case and does amount to a violation of protected rights,” he adds.
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