An artist-s work can fall on both sides of the copyright infringement law — right and wrong. On one hand, as a creative professional, you might be the aggrieved party. Someone else might have violated the rights to your work, leaving you anguished enough to file a lawsuit. Or, vice-versa. It-s your work that resembles someone else-s closely enough to raise questions. And in that case, it-s you who-s likely to end up in the dock.

So it-s a sensitive area for an artist to tread on, one that he should approach as if he-s walking on glass. But all too often, individuals or big design firms treat the subject with scant respect. They trample upon intellectual property rights with the disregard of a person stomping on grapes in a barrel to turn it into wine. Look what happened earlier this year in the case of Christian Dior vs People Tree. The international fashion giant-s print for a certain dress was almost a carbon copy of one of the Delhi-based retailer-s designs. Eventually, the two reached an out-of-court settlement, and it was the latter that laughed its way to the bank.